write an essay about apartheid in south africa

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By: History.com Editors

Updated: April 20, 2023 | Original: October 7, 2010

Apartheid, or “apartness” in the language of Afrikaans, was a system of legislation that upheld segregation against non-white citizens of South Africa. After the National Party gained power in South Africa in 1948, its all-white government immediately began enforcing existing policies of racial segregation. Under apartheid, nonwhite South Africans—a majority of the population—were forced to live in separate areas from whites and use separate public facilities. Contact between the two groups was limited. Despite strong and consistent opposition to apartheid within and outside of South Africa, its laws remained in effect for the better part of 50 years. In 1991, the government of President F.W. de Klerk began to repeal most of the legislation that provided the basis for apartheid.

Apartheid in South Africa

Racial segregation and white supremacy had become central aspects of South African policy long before apartheid began. The controversial 1913 Land Act , passed three years after South Africa gained its independence, marked the beginning of territorial segregation by forcing Black Africans to live in reserves and making it illegal for them to work as sharecroppers. Opponents of the Land Act formed the South African National Native Congress, which would become the African National Congress (ANC).

Did you know? ANC leader Nelson Mandela, released from prison in February 1990, worked closely with President F.W. de Klerk's government to draw up a new constitution for South Africa. After both sides made concessions, they reached agreement in 1993, and would share the Nobel Peace Prize that year for their efforts.

The Great Depression and World War II brought increasing economic woes to South Africa, and convinced the government to strengthen its policies of racial segregation. In 1948, the Afrikaner National Party won the general election under the slogan “apartheid” (literally “apartness”). Their goal was not only to separate South Africa’s white minority from its non-white majority, but also to separate non-whites from each other, and to divide Black South Africans along tribal lines in order to decrease their political power.

Apartheid Becomes Law

By 1950, the government had banned marriages between whites and people of other races, and prohibited sexual relations between Black and white South Africans. The Population Registration Act of 1950 provided the basic framework for apartheid by classifying all South Africans by race, including Bantu (Black Africans), Coloured (mixed race) and white.

A fourth category, Asian (meaning Indian and Pakistani) was later added. In some cases, the legislation split families; a parent could be classified as white, while their children were classified as colored.

A series of Land Acts set aside more than 80 percent of the country’s land for the white minority, and “pass laws” required non-whites to carry documents authorizing their presence in restricted areas.

In order to limit contact between the races, the government established separate public facilities for whites and non-whites, limited the activity of nonwhite labor unions and denied non-white participation in national government.

Apartheid and Separate Development

Hendrik Verwoerd , who became prime minister in 1958, refined apartheid policy further into a system he referred to as “separate development.” The Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act of 1959 created 10 Bantu homelands known as Bantustans. Separating Black South Africans from each other enabled the government to claim there was no Black majority and reduced the possibility that Black people would unify into one nationalist organization.

Every Black South African was designated as a citizen as one of the Bantustans, a system that supposedly gave them full political rights, but effectively removed them from the nation’s political body.

In one of the most devastating aspects of apartheid, the government forcibly removed Black South Africans from rural areas designated as “white” to the homelands and sold their land at low prices to white farmers. From 1961 to 1994, more than 3.5 million people were forcibly removed from their homes and deposited in the Bantustans, where they were plunged into poverty and hopelessness.

Opposition to Apartheid

Resistance to apartheid within South Africa took many forms over the years, from non-violent demonstrations, protests and strikes to political action and eventually to armed resistance.

Together with the South Indian National Congress, the ANC organized a mass meeting in 1952, during which attendees burned their pass books. A group calling itself the Congress of the People adopted a Freedom Charter in 1955 asserting that “South Africa belongs to all who live in it, Black or white.” The government broke up the meeting and arrested 150 people, charging them with high treason.

Sharpeville Massacre

In 1960, at the Black township of Sharpeville, the police opened fire on a group of unarmed Black people associated with the Pan-African Congress (PAC), an offshoot of the ANC. The group had arrived at the police station without passes, inviting arrest as an act of resistance. At least 67 people were killed and more than 180 wounded.

The Sharpeville massacre convinced many anti-apartheid leaders that they could not achieve their objectives by peaceful means, and both the PAC and ANC established military wings, neither of which ever posed a serious military threat to the state.

Nelson Mandela

By 1961, most resistance leaders had been captured and sentenced to long prison terms or executed. Nelson Mandela , a founder of Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”), the military wing of the ANC, was incarcerated from 1963 to 1990; his imprisonment would draw international attention and help garner support for the anti-apartheid cause.

On June 10, 1980, his followers smuggled a letter from Mandela in prison and made it public: “UNITE! MOBILIZE! FIGHT ON! BETWEEN THE ANVIL OF UNITED MASS ACTION AND THE HAMMER OF THE ARMED STRUGGLE WE SHALL CRUSH APARTHEID!”

President F.W. de Klerk

In 1976, when thousands of Black children in Soweto, a Black township outside Johannesburg, demonstrated against the Afrikaans language requirement for Black African students, the police opened fire with tear gas and bullets.

The protests and government crackdowns that followed, combined with a national economic recession, drew more international attention to South Africa and shattered any remaining illusions that apartheid had brought peace or prosperity to the nation.

The United Nations General Assembly had denounced apartheid in 1973, and in 1976 the UN Security Council voted to impose a mandatory embargo on the sale of arms to South Africa. In 1985, the United Kingdom and United States imposed economic sanctions on the country.

Under pressure from the international community, the National Party government of Pieter Botha sought to institute some reforms, including abolition of the pass laws and the ban on interracial sex and marriage. The reforms fell short of any substantive change, however, and by 1989 Botha was pressured to step aside in favor of another conservative president, F.W. de Klerk, who had supported apartheid throughout his political career.

When Did Apartheid End?

Though a conservative, De Klerk underwent a conversion to a more pragmatic political philosophy, and his government subsequently repealed the Population Registration Act, as well as most of the other legislation that formed the legal basis for apartheid. De Klerk freed Nelson Mandela on February 11, 1990.

A new constitution, which enfranchised Black citizens and other racial groups, took effect in 1994, and elections that year led to a coalition government with a nonwhite majority, marking the official end of the apartheid system.

The End of Apartheid. Archive: U.S. Department of State . A History of Apartheid in South Africa. South African History Online . South Africa: Twenty-Five Years Since Apartheid. The Ohio State University: Stanton Foundation . 

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Apartheid (1948-1994).

Apartheid is the name of the racial institution that was established in 1948 by the National Party that governed South Africa until 1994. The term, which literally means “apartness,” reflected a violently repressive policy designed to ensure that whites, who comprised 20% of the nation’s population, would continue to dominate the country.

Although the policy began officially in 1948, the practice of racial discrimination has deep roots in South African society. As early as 1788, Dutch colonizers began establishing laws and regulations that separated white settlers and native Africans. These laws and regulations continued after the British occupation in 1795, and soon led to the channeling of Africans into specific areas that would later constitute their so-called homelands. By 1910, the year that all of the formerly separate Boer Republics united with the British colony to become the Union of South Africa, there were nearly 300 reserves for natives throughout the country.

By 1948, Dr. D.F. Malan, the prime architect of apartheid, led the National Party in the first campaign that centered on openly racist appeals to white unity. The Party promised that if elected it would make permanent these reserves under the joint fundamental principles of separation and trusteeship. The National Party swept into office, winning 80 seats (mainly from Afrikaner voters), compared to the United Party’s 64 seats.

Soon afterwards the new government instituted a number of policies in the name of apartheid which sought to “ensure the survival of the white race” and to keep the different races separate on every level of society and in every facet of life. One of the first acts passed was the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, in 1949, which outlawed marriage between Europeans and non-Europeans. The following year new legislation banned sexual intercourse between Europeans and non-Europeans. Additionally, in 1950, the Malan government passed the Population Registration Act, which categorized every South African by race, and subsequently required people to carry with them at all times a card stating their racial identity. This Act was later modified in 1952, by issuing “reference books” instead of identification passes. Anyone caught without their “reference book” was fined or imprisoned.

The Group Areas Act of 1950, however, was the core of apartheid in South Africa. The act marked off areas of land for different racial groups, and made it illegal for people to live in any but their designated areas. Thousands of Africans were uprooted and moved into racially segregated neighborhoods in cities or to reserves which by the 1970s would be called homelands.

In conjunction with the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act of 1953, even black workers who during the day worked in the now residentially white only cities were still required to use different public transportation, post offices, restaurants, schools, and even separate doors, benches, and counters. The Natives Urban Areas Act in 1952 and the Native Labor Act in 1953 placed more restrictions on the black majority in South Africa.

Three important movements challenged apartheid. The oldest was the African National Congress (ANC) which was founded in 1912. The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) broke away from the ANC in 1958 and initiated its own campaign against apartheid. Both groups were eventually banned by the South African government and forced underground where they began violent campaigns of resistance. In the late 1960s, the South African Students’ Organization (SASO) was formed. Today it is known as the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) in South Africa.

Apartheid formally ended in 1994 with the first election which allowed the participation of all adult voters. With that election Nelson Mandela became the first black president of South Africa.

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Source of the author's information:.

Martin Meredith, In the Name of Apartheid (New York: Harper & Row Publishers,1988); Mokgethi Motlhabi, Challenge to Apartheid: Toward a Moral National Resistance (Grand Rapids: William B. Erdmann’s Publishing Company, 1988); L.E. Neame, T he History of Apartheid: The Story of the Colour War in South Africa (New York: London House & Maxwell, 1962); U.S. Department of State: Diplomacy in Action. “The end of apartheid.” http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/pcw/98678.htm .

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Apartheid in South Africa

Introduction.

Racial segregation is a significant problem that shaped the development of many countries and societies. In South Africa, apartheid was the institutionalized segregation of black people throughout the country. It had substantial repercussions for South Africa and its citizens, both positive and negative. Nelson Mandela played a crucial role in ending apartheid. The present paper will explore apartheid from beginning to end while also clarifying Nelson Mandela’s role.

South Africa’s development was heavily impacted by colonization. Due to its favorable geographic location, colonizers from various European countries, including the Netherlands and Britain, sought to occupy the land. The tensions between the indigenous people of South Africa and the colonizers resulted in racial conflict, which created a foundation for segregation. After the colonies merged, and the Union of South Africa was established, the opposition between native and white people strengthened. Apartheid started in 1948 as a policy introduced by the National Party to establish separate development of different racial groups in South Africa (“A history of Apartheid”, 2019). In theory, this could have contributed to cultural preservation and multiculturalism.

However, in reality, apartheid facilitated racial segregation on all levels. For example, under apartheid, “non-white South Africans (a majority of the population) would be forced to live in separate areas from whites and use separate public facilities, and contact between the two groups would be limited” (“Apartheid”, 2019, para. 1). Marriages and sexual relations between white people and those of other races were prohibited, and non-white people had to carry passes to enter restricted public areas (“Apartheid”, 2019).

The participation of non-white people in politics was banned, and even the activity of labor unions advocating for non-white workers was limited (“Apartheid”, 2019). As a result, apartheid promoted racial inequality and prevented the parallel development of various races while also opposing democracy.

Apartheid in South Africa impacted world history in two ways. On the one hand, apartheid supported the idea of white supremacy and black inferiority. At the time, non-white people in many other areas of the world were facing segregation and discrimination. The South African policy supported the opposition between white supremacists and people from other ethnicities. On the other hand, the fight against apartheid and the outrage toward injustice also contributed to the development of equal rights movements around the world. In a way, apartheid in South Africa drew attention to the issues of discrimination and segregation, thus inspiring the fight for freedom in other countries.

The defeat of the apartheid policy is widely attributed to Nelson Mandela, who was one of the most famous opposers of apartheid. Having faced discrimination throughout his life, Mandela wanted to end racial discrimination and segregation in South Africa. When apartheid was introduced in 1948, Mandela was a member of the African National Congress. He used his political position to encourage peaceful protests against the policy. Nevertheless, as these protests turned out to be futile, the party started using violent tactics. Along with other civil rights activists, Mandela was labeled a terrorist, and further activity led to his imprisonment (“Nelson Mandela”, 2019).

Mandela’s activity drew international attention, forcing a change of views in the South African government. The president of South Africa released Nelson Mandela from jail and worked together with him to put an end to apartheid laws and their effects (Nelson Mandela, 2019). In 1994, Mandela won the elections, becoming South Africa’s first democratic president.

Overall, the apartheid was a crucial period in South Africa’s development. The policy provided legal foundations for the forceful segregation of non-white citizens, leading to social, economic, and political inequality. Apartheid played an essential role in the development of civil rights movements all over the world, thus also having a substantial effect on global history. Nelson Mandela was one of the main opposers to apartheid, and his actions, although violent at times, led to the ending of apartheid and the establishment of democracy in South Africa.

A history of apartheid in South Africa . (2019). Web.

Apartheid . (2019). Web.

Nelson Mandela: Father of the nation . (2019). Web.

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Former South African president and civil rights advocate Nelson Mandela dedicated his life to fighting for equality—and ultimately helped topple South Africa's racist system of apartheid. His accomplishments are now celebrated each year on July 18, Nelson Mandela International Day.

• HISTORY & CULTURE

How Nelson Mandela fought apartheid—and why his work is not complete

This activist dedicated his life to dismantling racism—and went from being the world’s most famous political prisoner to South Africa’s first Black president.

Nelson Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, in what was then known as the Union of South Africa, a dominion of the British Empire. Though the majority of its inhabitants were Black, they were dominated by a white minority that controlled the land, the wealth, and the government—a discriminatory social structure that would later be codified in the country’s legal system and called apartheid.

Over the next 95 years, Mandela would help topple South Africa’s brutal social order. During a lifetime of resistance, imprisonment, and leadership, Nelson Mandela led South Africa out of apartheid and into an era of reconciliation and majority rule.  

( Read with your kids about Nelson Mandela’s life. )

Mandela began his life under another name: Rolihlahla Dalibhunga Mandela. His father was a chief of the Thembu people, a subgroup of the Xhosa people, who make up South Africa’s second-largest cultural group. After defying a British magistrate, Mandela’s father had been stripped of his chieftainship, title, and land. On his first day in a segregated elementary school, Rolihlahla, too, was stripped of his identity when his schoolteacher gave every child an English name—a common practice in a society in which whites “were either unable or unwilling to pronounce an African name, and considered it uncivilized to have one,” he   wrote in his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom .

While Mandela’s skin relegated him to the lowest social order in segregated South Africa, his royal blood—and connections—gave him access to the country’s only university for Black people, the University of Fort Hare. There, he became an activist, and was expelled for protesting the student government’s lack of power. He returned home to his small village on the eastern Cape only to find that his family wanted him to enter an arranged marriage to punish him for leaving school. So he fled north to Soweto, South Africa’s largest Black city, in 1941.

Apartheid and activism

In Soweto, Mandela became a part-time law student at Wits University and began to practice law, starting the nation’s first Black law firm. He joined the   African National Congress , a group that agitated for the civil rights of Black South Africans. In 1948, the segregation that was already rampant in South Africa became state law when its ruling party formally adopted apartheid , or apartness. This policy required Black South Africans to carry identification with them at all times, which they needed to enter areas designated for whites. They were forced to live in all-Black zones and forbidden from entering into interracial relationships. Black people were even removed from the voter rolls and eventually fully disenfranchised.

For Hungry Minds

At first, Mandela and his fellow members of the ANC used nonviolent tactics like strikes and demonstrations to protest apartheid. In 1952, Mandela helped escalate the struggle as a leader of the Defiance Campaign, which encouraged Black participants to actively violate laws. More than 8,000 people —including Mandela—were jailed for violating curfews, refusing to carry identification passes, and other offenses.  

( See pictures from the life and times of Mandela. )

Protesters gather in front of a courthouse in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the 1956 treason trial of anti-apartheid activists, among them Nelson Mandela. The defendants were found not guilty, but some—including Mandela—were later convicted on a separate charge in 1964.

The Defiance Campaign catapulted the ANC’s agenda, and Mandela, into the public eye as they continued to agitate for Black rights. After serving his sentence, Mandela continued to lead protests against the government and, in 1956, he, along with 155 others, was tried for treason . He was acquitted in 1961 and lived in hiding for 17 months after the trial.

Over time, Mandela came to believe that armed resistance was the only way to end apartheid. In 1962, he briefly left the country to receive military training and gain support for the cause but was arrested and convicted soon after his return for leaving the country without a permit. Then, while he was in prison, police discovered documents related to Mandela’s plan for guerrilla warfare. They charged him and his allies with sabotage.

Mandela and the other defendants in the ensuing   Rivonia Trial knew they were sure to be convicted and executed. So they turned their show trial into a statement, publicizing their anti-apartheid struggle and challenging the legal system that oppressed Black South Africans. When it was Mandela’s turn to speak for the defense, he delivered a   four-hour-long speech .

“The lack of human dignity experienced by Africans is the direct result of the policy of white supremacy,” he said. “Our struggle is a truly national one. It is a struggle of the African people, inspired by our own suffering and our own experience. It is a struggle for the right to live.” Mandela was committed to the ideal of a free society, he said, and “if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

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Prison years.

Mandela wasn’t put to death—but, in 1964, he was sentenced to life in prison. He was   allowed only one 30-minute visit with a single person every year, and could send and receive two letters a year. Confined in austere conditions, he worked in a limestone quarry and over time, earned the   respect of his captors and fellow prisoners. He was given chances to leave prison in exchange for ensuring the ANC would give up violence but refused.

Over his 27 years of imprisonment, Mandela became the world’s best-known political prisoner. His words were banned in South Africa, but he was already the country’s most famous man. His supporters agitated for his release and news of his imprisonment galvanized anti-apartheid activists all over the world.

In the 1960s, some members of the United Nations began to call for sanctions against South Africa—calls that grew louder in the decades that followed. Eventually, South Africa became an international pariah. In 1990, in response to international pressure and the threat of civil war, South Africa’s new president, F.W. de Klerk, pledged to end apartheid and released Mandela from prison.

Nelson Mandela and wife, Winnie, raise their fists upon his release from Victor Verster prison in South Africa. Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years for his fight against apartheid. Upon his release, he negotiated an end to the racist policy and was elected president of South Africa.

Apartheid did not immediately end with Mandela’s release. Now 71, Mandela negotiated with de Klerk for a new constitution that would allow majority rule. Apartheid was repealed in 1991, and in 1994, the ANC, now a political party, won more than 62 percent of the popular vote in a peaceful, democratic election. Mandela—who now shares   a Nobel Peace Prize with de Klerk—became the president of a new nation, South Africa.  

( Here's how South Africa has changed since the end of apartheid. )

Post-apartheid leadership

Mandela served as president for five years. Among his accomplishments was South Africa’s   Truth and Reconciliation Commission , designed to document human rights violations and help victims and violators come to term with their past. Though its results are contested, the commission offered the beginnings of restorative justice—a process that focuses on repair rather than retribution— to a nation still smarting from centuries of scars.

Mandela’s legacy wasn’t unassailable: He was considered by some analysts a largely ineffective president and was criticized for his handling of violence and the economy while in office.

After leaving office in 1999, Mandela spent the remainder of his life working to end poverty and raise awareness of HIV/AIDS. He died in 2013 at age 95.

Every year on July 18, he is   remembered on Nelson Mandela International Day, a United Nations holiday that commemorates his service and sacrifice. It’s a reminder that Mandela’s work is not yet done—an opinion shared by Mandela himself.  

( Even in the U.S., Mandela is a symbol of hope. )

“To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others,” he   wrote in his autobiography. “The true test of our devotion to freedom is just beginning.”

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South Africa's successful struggle for freedom and democracy is one of the most dramatic stories of our time. The racial tyranny of apartheid ended with a negotiated transition to a non-racial democracy, but not without considerable personal cost to thousands of men, women, and young people who were involved.

South Africa: Overcoming Apartheid, Building Democracy presents first-hand accounts of this important political movement. Interviews with South African activists, raw video footage documenting mass resistance and police repression, historical documents, rare photographs, and original narratives tell this remarkable story.

Watch three-minute preview video. Explore South Africa's history through unique Interviews , chronological Units , in-depth Essays , or collections of Media on key events in the struggle against apartheid. Curricular materials are in the For Educators section.

• TeachableMoment

Soweto Uprising: How a Student-Led Movement Changed History

On June 16, 1976, young people in South Africa mobilized a powerful protest against the apartheid regime's education policies. The Soweto Uprising became an epic fight that contributed to the end of apartheid. In this activity, students learn about the Soweto Uprising as well as two recent U.S. youth-led movements that are fighting injustice, Dream Defenders and March for Our Lives.

On June 16, South Africans, and people around the world, will mark the anniversary of the Soweto Uprising, a 1976 student-led rebellion that had a profound impact on the movement to overthrow apartheid in South Africa. June 16 is Youth Day in South Africa, a national holiday commemorating the courage displayed by students who stood against the apartheid government.   This two-part lesson explores the essential question, “How do oppressed people fight back against injustice and oppression?” In Part 1 of the lesson, students learn about the Soweto Uprising through video and discussion.  In Part 2, students examine two recent youth-led social justice organizations in the United States: Dream Defenders and March for Our Lives, and relate them to the anti-apartheid youth movement. 

Note:  This lesson explores a powerful protest that also resulted in the deaths of hundreds of young protesters. Before beginning the lesson, consider how students may react and how to ensure a supportive classroom climate for the discussion. You may want to review these guidelines for discussing upsetting issues.

Celebrating Youth Day in Soweto, 2016, Government of South Africa

Part one: the soweto uprising.

Background Information for the Teacher 

The Black South African challenge to apartheid and the student-led Soweto Uprising offer powerful examples of how oppressed people can fight back against their oppressors.

Though South Africa had been an oppressive, racist government since its inception, apartheid, an Afrikaans word meaning “separateness,” was adopted as official policy in 1948. In this predominantly Black country, Black South Africans couldn’t vote or own property and were forced to live in isolated, impoverished rural communities or shantytowns surrounding major cities. Blacks also were required to carry a passbook that designated where they could live and work.

In 1953, a law called the Bantu Education Act codified into the law the separate and unequal educational system for Blacks that had also already been in existence. Under the Act, the curriculum in Black schools was designed to keep Black students in their place of assumed inferiority and get them ready for menial, low-wage labor. 

The man known as the architect of apartheid, Hendrik Verwoerd, stated: 

“The Natives will be taught from childhood to realize that equality with  Europeans is not for them. There is no place for the Bantu child above the  level of certain forms of labor."

In 1975, Black South African students were told they had to begin learning their major subjects, mathematics and social studies, in a new language, Afrikaans – the language of the people who had created apartheid and made life miserable for them and their parents. Up until then, they’d been learning in English and, early on, in both English and the native language of their tribe. Now, as high school students, they were required to begin learning in Afrikaans, the language of their oppressors.

For students already learning in segregated, poorly-funded schools under the harsh apartheid regime that marginalized and, at times, murdered Blacks, that was the tipping point. 

Many students decided they could no longer stand for the injustices of the South African educational system. The Soweto Uprising of 1976 is one of the best known events in the struggle against apartheid.

On June 16, 1976, an estimated twenty thousand students in Soweto, a township of the city of Johannesburg, left their schools and marched in peaceful protest of their educational system. (Emphasize to students that in the months of organizing and preparing for their march it was always organized to be a peaceful protest.)  

When police arrived, they began shooting students who would not disperse when ordered. Nevertheless, during the next 10 days, students and parents continued to protest. The official death toll rose to 176, with two whites and 174 Blacks counted dead. Actual deaths, however, were significantly higher. According to the government-appointed Cillie Commission of Inquiry, 575 people died; police action resulted in 451 deaths; 3,907 people were injured; and the police were responsible for 2,389 injuries. Both the death and inquiry figures were disputed by various sources as being too low. The number of people arrested for offenses related to the resistance was said to be 5,980.

Within four months of the Soweto revolt, 160 African communities all over the country were involved in resistance. It was estimated that at least 250,000 people in Soweto were actively involved in the resistance, and 1,298 people were arrested for offenses ranging from attending illegal meetings, arson to terrorism and furthering the aims of banned organizations.

In the early 1990s, after nearly two decades of continued struggle, apartheid ended in South Africa. Nelson Mandela, the nation’s first Black president, was elected in 1994.  

Classroom Activity Part 1  

Introduction (5 minutes)

Ask students to list all they know about segregation in the United States during the Jim Crow era. During this period, both laws and customs oppressed, disenfranchised, and economically disadvantaged African Americans and other people of color and gave unfair advantages to whites. 

After they’ve compiled their list, spend a minute explaining that many of the same legal restrictions existed in South Africa since its founding in 1910. For decades, Black South Africans worked to change things.    

Simulation (3 minutes)

Announce to students that during the next school year, they’ll be required to learn all of their lessons in Russian or some other language that none or few of your students speak. Ask students for their reactions.

Students are likely to express outrage and disbelief. (One of my students even said the same thing that South Africans students did in 1975: “We’re gonna fail!”) After a minute or less of “student protest,” quickly let them know that of course they won’t be required to learn in Russian. But in 1975 in South Africa, this was real for Black students! 

Video & Discussion (6-8 minutes)

Play one of the video or audio clips listed below.

Video Clips: Tsietsi Mashinini https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4yyMgEd0YM (End at 5:49) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY6rPFAvi20 (End at 5:34)

Audio Clip: Sibongile Mkhabela (Bongi) https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3cswsrr  (End at 8:45)

Next, break the class into small groups and have students lead a discussion on how students organize to dismantle oppression using the discussion prompts below (17 – 19 minutes)  

Prompts for either of the Tsietsi Mashinini videos:

• What do you think gave Tsietsi Mashinini, and students at the other schools involved, the courage to organize and participate in the mass protest?
• This uprising went on for months even though within the first two weeks nearly 600 Blacks were murdered, and thousands injured. Why do you think students and adults continued in the face of such government violence? (Have students use whatever background knowledge they have about America’s Civil Rights Movement waged by African Americans when thinking about this discussion prompt.)  

Prompts for Bongi audio: 

• Bongi spoke about the courage it took for students to stage their protest march and she mentioned that one of her classmates broke out in song. How does music play a role in protest movements? Why is music so powerful? What else gave students the courage to march on June 16, 1976?
• This uprising went on for months even though within the first two weeks nearly 600 Blacks were murdered, and thousands injured. Why do you think students and adults continued in the face of such harsh government repression? (Have students use whatever background knowledge they have about America’s Civil Rights Movement waged by African Americans when thinking about this discussion prompt.)

Closing:  (9 minutes)

Reconvene the entire class and have students report back. Ask:

• What is your understanding of how oppressed people organize to dismantle injustice and oppression?
• What are your thoughts on the Soweto Uprising of June 16, 1976?

PART TWO:  Dream Defenders & March for Our Lives

In this activity, students learn about two recent U.S. campaigns for justice led by young people. After researching these groups and their goals, students will discuss these organizing efforts in light of what they have learned about the Soweto Uprising and the youth movement against apartheid. 

Background Information for the Teacher  

1.  Dream Defenders

Dream Defenders is an organization that was founded by young activists who marched together to protest the killing of Trayvon Martin . Trayvon Martin, 17, was shot by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida on February 26, 2012.

On July 16, 2012, three days after Zimmerman was acquitted in the shooting, the Dream Defenders streamed into the governor’s suite to hold a sit-in and to demand changes to Florida’s self-defense laws – specifically the Stand Your Ground provision .  The Dream Defenders were protesting the way students of color were treated in the state’s schools as well as its streets. They vowed to stay until a special legislative session was called on their issues. 

They weren’t able to convince Gov. Rick Scott to call a special session on the controversial Stand Your Ground self-defense law. They did, however, draw national attention to their cause by holding one of the longest sit-in demonstrations ever in the Florida Capitol. They ended the sit-in after 31 days, at which time House Speaker, Will Weatherford, agreed to speak with them about the Stand Your Ground Law. 

Dream Defenders List of Freedoms:

• Freedom from poverty
• Freedom from prisons and police
• Freedom of mind
• A free, flourishing democracy
• Freedom of movement
• Freedom from war, violence and environmental destruction
• Freedom to be

Sources/Additional Reading

• https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/12/us/dream-defenders-arent-walking-out-on-their-florida-protest.html
• https://www.wuft.org/news/2013/10/15/who-are-the-dream-defenders/
• https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/article1954155.html

2.  March for Our Lives

The March for Our Lives movement began shortly after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14, 2018. Student survivors decided to stage a rally in Washington, D.C., on March 24, a little more than a month after the tragedy. It was the largest march ever against gun violence, and one of the largest protests in U.S. history. 

The march and subsequent March for Our Lives organizing not only called for gun control and an end to gun violence but also protested police brutality, domestic abuse, and advocated for LGBTQ rights. The movement also mobilized for youth participation in the 2018 elections and in the political process in general. 

March for Our Lives Policy to Save Lives:

• Fund gun violence research
• Eliminate absurd restrictions on the ATF
• Universal background checks
• High-capacity magazine ban
• Limit firing power on the streets
• Funding for intervention programs
• Extreme risk protection orders
• Disarm all domestic abusers
• Gun trafficking
• Safe storage and mandatory theft reporting

Additional Reading

• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/march-for-our-lives-student-activists-showed-meaning-tragedy-180970717/
• https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/26/us/march-for-our-lives/index.html

Classroom Activity Part 2

Introduction (6 minutes)

Ask students: 

• Who has heard of the Dream Defenders movement? 
• Who has heard of the March for Our Lives movement? 

Next, give a brief history of both movements based on how much students do or don’t know about each group.

Independent Learning/Small Group Work (20 minutes)

Divide students into two groups. One group will research the Dream Defenders and the other will research the March for Our Lives movement. 

Direct students to each organization’s website. 

The Dream Defenders group will tab onto the “ Freedom Papers ” section of the website. The group will break into subgroups of 3-4, with each subgroup examining two of the seven “Freedoms” the Dream Defenders espouse as part of their platform. Students will then discuss what they’ve read using the following discussion prompts:

• Do you agree or disagree with the statements you just read? Why or why not?
• How do you think the Dream Defenders will achieve their stated goals? (To answer this prompt students should check out other parts of the website.) 

The March for Our Lives group will click on the Policy Agenda tab. The group will break into subgroups of 3-4, with each subgroup assigned to examine two of the ten policy agenda items. Students will then discuss what they’ve read using the following discussion prompts: 

• How do you feel about the policy agenda items you read? 
• What steps are the student organizers taking to secure the changes they’re demanding in their policy agenda? (To answer this prompt students should check out other parts of the website.) 

Whole Class Discussion  (10 - 15 minutes) Reconvene the class to discuss both movements, and relate them to our previous exploration of the Soweto Uprising. 

Ask students:

• What stood out for you in your exploration of Dream Defenders or March for Our Lives? 
• What strategies did the movement use?
• What impact did the movement have on society?
• What are the parallels between these two movements and the events of June 16, 1976?
• What do these two U.S. movements have in common with the Soweto Uprising? 
• How are they different?  

Closing (4 minutes)

Ask students to share one thing they will take away from today’s discussion.   

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• 14 min read

Civil Resistance 101: South Africa’s Anti-Apartheid Struggle

Civil resistance exists as a pivotal catalyst, effecting transformation within oppressive regimes and confronting unjust policies that impede civil liberties. Civil resistance’s impact has changed the course of cultural and historical identities throughout history. The study of civil resistance has shed light on the intricate power dynamics present in governance; moreover, it has illuminated a pathway of discourse that empowers nonviolent actions to pursue justice and equitable change. The narratives of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Nelson Mandela, among others, attest to the potential of civil resistance to dismantle the seemingly insurmountable walls of injustice. It is through these 101 series of civil resistance that the reader will unearth the subtle intricacies of power dynamics within governance structures. This series exposes how resolute people are. Civil resistance, in its essence, is a testament to the resilient human spirit, forging a pathway of discourse that transcends the realm of violence. This series focuses on the foundational principles of democracy, equity, and human rights. Moreover, civil resistance is a testament to the perseverance of humanity to shape its own destiny, fight oppression, and create a trajectory towards a more just and equitable world.

In the context of an international relations and history degree curriculum, this multifaceted study of civil resistance is vital for understanding philosophies, theories, and historical movements, enabling those to analyze, interpret, and actively pave the way for a humanistic, ethical, and peaceful future. This series of articles will embark on a journey through a comprehensive exploration of civil resistance. It will weave together threads of international relations theories, and conflict resolution approaches, and discuss historical movements to provide insightful and indispensable knowledge to the reader. The series aims  to provide the reader with a thorough understanding of civil resistance’s impact on societies and how it has left an enduring mark on society today.

This series is divided into the following chapters:

1. Civil Resistance 101: Defining The Idea and Motives of Civil Resistance  

2. Civil Resistance 101: From Protest to Progress in Women’s Suffrage    

3. Civil Resistance 101: India’s Quest for Independence

4. Civil Resistance 101: South Africa’s Anti-Apartheid Struggle

5. Civil Resistance 101: Achieving Equality through the Civil Rights Movement

6. Civil Resistance 101: Unmasking the Berlin Wall’s Liberation

7. Civil Resistance 101: Unearthing the Power of Civil Resistance for the Future

Introduction to Apartheid

In 1652, a Dutch explorer named Afrikaner developed an interest in South Africa. Shortly afterward, the British engaged in three wars with the Dutch, seeking control of the region's diamonds and the incorporation of South Africa into their colonial holdings (Ayubi, 2023, p. 124). This early colonial history laid the groundwork for profound transformations. From 1910 to 1970, South Africa witnessed the establishment and consolidation of the apartheid state (Luiz, 1998, p. 51). Apartheid, derived from the Afrikaans word for "separation," is a term that explains the system of racial segregation that took place in South Africa (Ayubi, 2023, p. 125). This system put individuals into four distinct racial groups: the privileged white community, followed by the colored population, then the Asian community, and the marginalized black Africans (Ayubi, 2023, p. 127).

During the apartheid movement, the National Party (NP) was extremely powerful (Luiz, 1998, pp. 66-67). They were able to institute laws that gave them immeasurable control over their wishes and wants of maintaining and promoting apartheid. Their strength was supported by creating rules and laws that were so stringent and segregated that they were able to “systematically weaken civil society” (Luiz, 1998, pp. 66-67). With the advent of apartheid, it was the first time ever that a “highly industrialized state” was overpowered by its own people (Zunes, 1999, p. 137). Resisting the rules and laws of the National Party was considered a direct betrayal, leading to severe punishment within their society (Luiz, 1998, pp. 66-67). The system they established rewarded whites while causing harm to blacks through a carefully engineered structure of dominance and segregation laws (Luiz, 1998, pp. 66-67). At the same time, they appointed many whites into the public sectors of society (Luiz, 1998, pp. 66-67). The formidable challenge in overcoming apartheid stemmed from the entrenched social structure that severely constrained protest opportunities (Zunes, 1999, p. 137). With more than four-fifths of the South African population being black and subject to the dominance of the whites, the control exerted by the ruling class further hindered the potential for effective opposition and resistance against the oppressive system (Zunes, 1999, p. 137).

In 1910, the Union of South Africa emerged as a formal state, marking the beginning of a discriminatory era (Luiz, 1998, p. 51). The white ruling population came from aristocratic and rich backgrounds - controlling much of the gold and minerals in Africa (which represented the majority in the world) (Zunes, 1999, p. 138). Overall, the economy and social society represented extreme oppression while maintaining a level of modernity similar to that of Western nations; essentially, it was a paradox of its own existence (Zunes, 1999, p. 138). The black population found themselves excluded from political participation, trapped in a web of institutionalized segregation governed by a series of rules and laws (Luiz, 1998, p. 51). Beginning in 1912, the African National Congress (ANC) was there to represent black South Africans legally and politically by nonviolent means (Ayubi, 2023, p. 139). The Native Land Act of 1913 allocated a mere 7% of property ownership rights to Africans, compelling impoverished individuals to seek "urban work" as agricultural lands faced closure (Luiz, 1998, p. 51). The year 1923 witnessed the implementation of the Urban Areas Act, which confined Africans to designated areas or "townships" (Luiz, 1998, p. 51). Subsequently, in 1924, the Pact government enacted laws eradicating any black presence in "Government jobs" and empowering whites to assume those roles (Luiz, 1998, p. 51). By 1931, South Africa fell under the control of Great Britain (Ayubi, 2023, p. 124). With the advent of the fusion government in 1934 due to World War II, the white government's grip on white supremacy weakened, leading to Africans attaining positions of greater respect. However, government control was still shared between the British and the Afrikaners until the 1940s when the National Party favoring the Afrikaners won the vote (Ayubi, 2023, p. 124). The National Party set the ground rules for establishing Apartheid and preserving a white-controlled government and racist society in South Africa (Ayubi, 2023, p. 124).

Further, in 1948, non-white Africans, as a whole, became completely limited and nearly powerless at the hands of the white minority (Luiz, 1998, p. 51). The National Party (NP) won the elections in South Africa (Luiz, 1998, p. 52). From 1948-1970, the National Party was able to create a new land that focused and successful in Afrikaner jobs, interests, opportunities, and nationalism (Luiz, 1998, p. 52). Ultimately, apartheid law set certain restrictions; there was to be no relationships between whites and non-whites, all public facilities would be segregated, and all non-whites would be banned from representation in the national governments (Ayubi, 2023, p. 125).

This government created a proclamation of the land that centered on apartheid and “Afrikaner empowerment” (Luiz, 1998, p. 52). The Afrikaners focused on supporting and promoting their Afrikaner nationalism; to achieve this, they created segregation laws, assisted in creating job opportunities for Afrikaners while creating laws to keep the blacks behind, and ultimately tried to put their interests in helping the Afrikaner people in a variety of sectors (Luiz, 1998, p. 52). In 1950, the Population Registration Act was created by the National Party to acknowledge an individual based on their race (Luiz, 1998, p. 52). Regions were established to further divide the groups and zones: the black zones were known as “Homelands” or “Bantustans” (Ayubi, 2023, p. 127). These regions were impoverished and suffered from resource allocation and weak autonomy (Ayubi, 2023, p. 127). These regions were known to be dirty, population-dense, and filled with laborers or unemployed black persons (Ayubi, 2023, p. 127).

Desmond Tutu & Nelson Mandela

Archbishop Desmond Tutu emerged as a significant advocate for the anti-apartheid movement, championing nonviolent resistance throughout his career (McCarty, 2012, p. 971). Desmond Tutu became a moral leader in the anti-apartheid movement, merging his role as an Anglican bishop with a strong commitment to justice. His church speeches were focused on reconciliation as he closely connected to the wider political struggle for equality in South Africa (Rensburg, 2002, p. 746). Tutu boldly confronted the National Party (NP), insisting that their segregated policies contradicted God's wishes (Rensburg, 2002, p. 746). Through his influential stance, Tutu inspired a moral awakening and played a vital role in breaking down apartheid, making a lasting impact on the fight for a fairer society (Rensburg, 2002, p. 746). Additionally, up until the 1990s, Tutu would participate in boycotts and protest marches, often leading both in the efforts to end Apartheid (McCarty, 2012, p. 980). His teachings and beliefs come from the African idea known as “ubuntu” which has its roots in the belief that all individuals are connected and reliant upon one another and their very sense of humanity (McCarty, 2012, p. 981). Simply, he applied this principle to show that humanity is what connects black South Africans to white South Africans (McCarty, 2012, p. 982). The other aspect of “ubuntu” refers to the idea that all individuals are created in God’s image; therefore, there is no distinction between races in the sense that all humans are created as God created them (McCarty, 2012, p. 984).

Nelson Mandela, part of the minority of newly educated black Africans in the 1940s, emerged as a leader within the African National Congress's Youth League (Freund, 2014, p. 292). During this period, the ANC, under Mandela's influence, adopted a more confrontational stance against the segregation and political divisions imposed by the white minority in power (Freund, 2014, p. 292). Simultaneously his wife, Winnie Mandela, surfaced in the 1950s and 1960s, symbolizing the struggles faced by non-whites and women during apartheid (Chalhang, 2020, p. 34). Subjected to government harassment for years, Winnie Mandela was eventually banned, compelling her to relocate to the Orange Free State in the 1970s (Chalhang, 2020, p. 34). Prior to Mandela’s imprisonment in 1962, he was a central figure of the ANC and its faction known as “Umkhonto we Sizwe” (Olesen, 2015, p. 46). The Rivonia trial was a symbolic demonstration of his anti-apartheid values and principles as he was sent off to prison as he was sentenced for treason (Olesen, 2015, p.  46). At the Rivonia trial, he made a four-hour-long speech detailing his commitment to a liberated and democratic African society and one he would die for (Olesen, 2015, p. 46).

Tutu’s roles varied from priest to professor, leader of the South African Council of Churches, and then to Archbishop (McCarty, 2012, p. 978). His character and words had the power to sway public opinion and drive change. For example, in March 1975, he was even elected the first black dean of St. Mary’s Cathedral, which was made up of white parishioners (McCarty, 2012, p. 980). With this election, he was allowed to reside in the white district where the church was constructed; this allowance was technically in direct violation of the Group Area Act which separated whites from non-whites (McCarty, 2012, p. 980). However, in an act of nonviolent resistance, he refused the offer to live in the white community and stated “I do not want to apologize for my blackness” (McCarty, 2012, p. 980). In other efforts to ensure peace and political change, Tutu issued letters to the Prime Minister of South Africa in the 1970s, stating that without change, violence would ensue (McCarty, 2012, p. 980). During this time, Nelson Mandela was taken to jail as a prisoner (Olesen, 2015, p. 45). From 1962-1990, Nelson Mandela would remain in prison in South Africa at Robben Island (Olesen, 2015, p. 45).  After he and fellow ANC members were imprisoned between 1962 and 1964, populations inside as well as outside of South Africa saw these imprisonments as a means to silence anti-apartheid activists (Olesen, 2015, p. 46).

Women & Anti-Apartheid

Women played a crucial role in the emerging nonviolent resistance movements in South Africa, actively participating in various protests such as bus ticket boycotts, squatter movement protests, and pass-law demonstrations, as documented by Chalhang (2020, p. 33). The backdrop of their struggle included the oppressive Immorality Act of 1927, which criminalized "extra-marital sex across racial frontiers" (Luiz, 1998, p. 51). The years 1930 and 1937 witnessed municipal attempts to restrict African women from finding employment, reflecting a challenging period for their economic prospects (Chalhang, 2020, p. 32). In 1943, Madi-hall Xuma became the African National Congress Women’s League president; a major milestone under her guidance was to protest the Communism Act of 1950 which allowed government leaders to “ban” citizens for committing specific acts (Chalhang, 2020, p. 33).

Throughout the 1950s, additional legislation further excluded women while also segregating blacks from whites, particularly in settlements and education (Luiz, 1998, p. 52). In 1952, official exclusion of women from employment without authorities' permission became a stark reality, accompanied by the implementation of "rigid legislation," such as passbooks and restrictions on staying in urban areas for more than 72 hours without permission (Chalhang, 2020, p. 32). In response to these oppressive pass laws, women developed a form of "passive resistance" (Chalhang, 2020, p. 32). The discriminatory environment expanded with the introduction of acts like the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, the Immorality Act of 1950, the Separate Representation of Voters Act of 1951, and the 1953 Reservation of Separate Amenities Act (Luiz, 1998, p. 52).

In response to these hardships, the Federation of South African Women (FSAW) was established in 1954, providing a platform for women to engage in more formal nonviolent protests against the discriminatory Pass laws (Chalhang, 2020, p. 33). The FSAW's impact was notably evident in the 1956 march to Pretoria, where 20,000 women showcased their defiance against unjust laws (Chalhang, 2020, p. 33). The government, under the National Party's rule, enforced stringent laws penalizing those who questioned or opposed racial statutes, including the banning of The Natives Representative Council in 1951 (Luiz, 1998, p. 52).

Pan Africanist Congress

In contrast to the ANC's nonviolent stance, the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) emerged in 1957, advocating armed resistance to challenge apartheid (Zunes, 1999, p. 139). The PAC's commitment to violent actions, exemplified by the Umkonto We Sizwe or “Spear of the Nation” bombings and campaigns causing harm to children and black government supporters, marked a departure from nonviolent civil resistance (Zunes, 1999, pp. 139-140).

Simultaneously, the National Party (NP) initiated the "homeland system" in the 1960s, establishing ten self-governing lands with the aim of severing South African connections (Luiz, 1998, p. 53). Transkei became a self-governing land in 1963 and gained independence in 1976, followed by Bophutatswana, Venda, and Ciskei (Luiz, 1998, p. 53). During this period, the NP perceived the ANC as a threat, prompting the creation of repressive laws such as the Unlawful Organisations Act (1960), the Sabotage Act (1962), and the Internal Security Act (1976), hindering opposition to the apartheid movement (Luiz, 1998, p. 53).

From 1963 to 1983, the NP legally displaced 3.5 million "coloreds, Asians, and Africans" to self-governing territories (Luiz, 1998, p. 53). However, the PAC's turn to violent tactics during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s had negative consequences for the broader anti-apartheid movement (Zunes, 1999, p. 139). Despite early support, the PAC's adoption of violence undermined the nonviolent civil resistance movement, revealing the challenges posed by the military advantage of the white South African government (Zunes, 1999, p. 139). By 1977, approximately 540,000 individuals were white and employed in the "public service" sector, with the top 10% of positions predominantly held by Afrikaners (Luiz, 1998, pp. 66-67). Additionally, white South Africans possessed a formidable army of 180,000, with the potential for reinforcements totaling 500,000 men (Zunes, 1999, p. 139). Moreover, they ranked among the highest globally in guns per capita, and the South African airforce boasted an unparalleled arsenal of aircraft, tanks, vehicles, and firearms (Zunes, 1999, p. 140). Ultimately, by 1978, the South African police force comprised 55% white members, particularly in the security sector, where they frequently persecuted those politically opposed to the apartheid state (Luiz, 1998, pp. 66-67).

Sharpesville Massacre and the Soweto Uprising

Two pivotal events underscored the nonviolent civil resistance movement during apartheid: the Sharpesville Massacre and the Soweto uprising (Chalhang, 2020, p. 34). On March 21, 1960, the Sharpesville Massacre unfolded in Transvaal as hundreds peacefully protested pass-laws outside the police station (Chalhang, 2020, p. 34). In a mere 40 seconds, the police responded with fatal force, initiating a chain reaction of violence and legislative acts aimed at suppressing anti-apartheid sentiments, including the “Unlawful Organisations Act of 1960, Defence Act, Police Amendment Act, and the General Laws Amendment Act of 1961” (Chalhang, 2020, p. 34). Simultaneously, in Sharpesville, the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) rallied against labor issues, culminating in the Sharpesville Massacre on March 21, 1960 (Ayubi, 2023, p. 127). The police's lethal response resulted in 69 deaths and over 180 injuries, triggering widespread protests and strikes nationwide, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency (Ayubi, 2023, p. 127-128). In the aftermath, the ANC and PAC faced a ban imposed by the South African government (Ayubi, 2023, p. 128).

The 1970s witnessed the Soweto uprising, rooted in educational disparities, where the South African government mandated Afrikaans as the official language in African schools, replacing English (Chalhang, 2020, p. 34). African students, perceiving this as a further infringement on their rights, congregated at Orlando West High School on June 16, 1976, to protest the language substitution (Chalhang, 2020, p. 34). The situation escalated when the police, in a panicked response, fired shots without hesitation, resulting in the tragic death of 13-year-old Hector Peterson (Chalhang, 2020, p. 34). This incident fueled widespread rioting across various townships, amplifying the fervor of the anti-apartheid movement (Chalhang, 2020, p. 34).

After being released from prison in 1990, Mandela entered the global circuit and prepared a speech at Wembley Stadium in London; his words were gracious as he thanked the anti-apartheid activists and the world figures who helped free him (Olesen, 2015, p. 52). Similar to Tutu’s vision of reconciliation, Mandela stated that he saw a future for South African politics rooted in democracy and nonviolence, one focused on the very humanity of people (Olesen, 2015, p. 54).

On February 2, 1990, President de Klerk of South Africa took a historic step by dismantling all laws that prohibited resistance against apartheid and subsequently releasing Nelson Mandela just a few days later (Chalhang, 2020, p. 35). The pivotal moment marked a significant turning point in South Africa's political landscape. Exactly a year later, on February 1, 1991, apartheid was officially abolished, marking the advent of a new political era commonly referred to as the "transition" (Chalhang, 2020, p. 35).

In 1993, Mandela received the Nobel Peace Prize (Olesen, 2015, p. 55). In 1994, Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa (Hughes, 2023, p. 33). This new government symbolized a united nation with a new constitution focused on reconciliation and moving forward from the injustices imposed on the black population in the preceding decades (Hughes, 2023, p. 33). The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was created by Tutu in 1995; it became a driving force for change and the recognition of past violence and political suppression (Hughes, 2023, p. 33). Serving as the Chairperson of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Tutu assumed a pivotal role as a symbol and leader of democracy and nonviolence (McCarty, 2012, p. 972). The TRC, a groundbreaking initiative in South Africa, signified a legal commitment to democratic change through nonviolent means, representing the first of its kind globally (McCarty, 2012, pp. 972 & 977). Established to address the social and political wrongs committed during apartheid, the TRC aimed at achieving reconciliation (McCarty, 2012, p. 977). From the TRC, "legacy projects" emerged as symbols of South Africa's newly founded democratic principles (Hughes, 2023, p. 34). One such project included transforming Robben Island, where Mandela and other anti-apartheid activists were imprisoned, into a museum in 1997 (Hughes, 2023, p. 34). Another legacy project, initiated in 1999, was Freedom Park, resulting in a museum and a symbol of reparation in Pretoria, completed in 2013 (Hughes, 2023, p. 34).

In South Africa, the white ruling power hinged on both its black citizens and Western nations during the apartheid era, creating a system that endured due to this interdependence (Zunes, 1999, p. 138). Without any true legality, apartheid continued to persist from 1948 until the 1990s solely due to social, political and economic control (Ayubi, 2023, p. 125). The nonviolent resistance witnessed during apartheid focused not only on areas where whites were successful but specifically targeted the infrastructure of their dominance (Zunes, 1999, p. 138). This strategic approach aimed to challenge the very foundations of the oppressive system. Nonviolent action, as defined by Zunes (1999, p. 138), involves purposeful change through unusual acts of peaceful protest that avoid causing harm. The overarching issue prevalent under the apartheid government was its profound dependency on the passivity of its black citizens (Zunes, 1999, p. 138). In contrast to other theorists, Gene Sharp believed that even in a government as institutionally racist as that of South Africa, it remained reliant on the "consent" of its people (Zunes, 1999, p. 138). Sharp further argued that by educating the black majority, they could effectively and peacefully fight back against the oppressive system (Zunes, 1999, p. 139).   In essence, the nonviolent resistance illuminated the power of strategic dissent, targeting the roots of oppression rather than merely reacting to its manifestations (Zunes, 1999, p. 138). Consequently, this approach not only challenged the apartheid system's endurance but also underscored the transformative potential inherent in meaningful nonviolent actions.

Bibliographical References

Ayubi, A. (2023). Apartheid policy in South Africa.  International Journal of Science and Society , 5(1), 124-131.  https://doi.org/10.54783/ijsoc.v5i1.634  

Chalhang, K. (2021). An assessment of women’s involvement in the antiapartheid struggle in South Africa.  International Journal of Political Science and Governance , 3(1), 32-36.  https://doi.org/10.33545/26646021.2021.v3.i1a.83  

Freund, B. (2014). The shadow of Nelson Mandela, 1918–2013.  Review of African Political Economy , 41(140), 292-296. https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2014.883111  

Hughes, H. (2023). Public Histories in South Africa: Between Contest and Reconciliation.  Public History Review,  30, 31-42. https://doi . org/10.5130/phrj.v30i0.8374

Luiz, J.M. (1998). The Evolution and Fall of the South African Apartheid State: A Political Economy Perspective.  Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies , 26(2-3), 49-72. 10.5070/F7262-3016619

McCarty III, J.W. (2012). Nonviolent Law? Linking Nonviolent Social Change and Truth and Reconciliation Commissions. West Virginia Law Review , 114, 969-1005.  https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/wvlr/vol114/iss3/8

Olesen, T. (2015). Global political iconography: The making of Nelson Mandela. American Journal of Cultural Sociology,  3(1), 34-64.

Rensburg, R. (2002). Archbishop Desmond Tutu as moral sage and servant leader: A compassionate zealot. Verbum et Ecclesia , 23(3).   https://doi.org/10.4102/ve.v23i3.1237  

 Zunes, S. (1999). The Role of Non-Violent Action in the Downfall of Apartheid. The Journal of Modern African Studies , 37(1), 137-169. http://www.jstor.org/stable/161471

Visual Sources

D.W. (2012). Mandela turns 94.  [Photography] DW. https://www.dw.com/en/millions-wish-mandela-a-happy-birthday/a-16103996

Figure  1: Wikipedia. (2024). History of the African National Congress. [Photography] Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_African_National_Congress

Figure  2: Facing History. (2018). Afrikaner Identity . [Photography] Facing History & Ourselves. https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/afrikaner-identity

Figure  3: Mail & Guardian. (2013). Tutu: We thank God for Madiba . [Photography] Mail & Guardian.

https://mg.co.za/article/2013-12-06-00-tutu-we-thank-god-for-madiba/

Figure  4: Speak Magazine. (2024). Speak: ANC Women’s League . [Photography] Speak Magazine.

https://www.saha.org.za/women/speak_anc_womens_league_south_african_women_march_to_freedom.htm

Figure  5: Wikipedia. (2021). Founding members of the Pan Africanist Congress in 1957.  [Photography] Wikipedia.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Founding_members_of_the_Pan_Africanist_Congress_in_1957.jpg

Figure  6: Divestment for Humanity. (2015). The Sharpeville Massacre, 1960 . [Photography] Divestment for Humanity.

https://michiganintheworld.history.lsa.umich.edu/antiapartheid/exhibits/show/exhibit/origins/sharpeville

Figure 7: Torchia, C. & Eliason, M. (2013).  Nelson Mandela was global symbol of sacrifice and reconciliation . [Photography] Columbia Missourian. https://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/nelson-mandela-was-global-symbol-of-sacrifice-and-reconciliation/article_807a10b5-ea7e-528f-a2a0-53b3767635b4.html

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85 Apartheid Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best apartheid topic ideas & essay examples, ✅ simple & easy apartheid essay titles, 📝 interesting topics to write about apartheid, ❓ apartheid essay questions.

• Black Consciousness Movement vs. Apartheid in South Africa In his representation, the black consciousness is a way to resist racism not only by the rallying of the oppressed black majority, but also by the realized formation of the fundamentally excellent system of social […]
• Apartheid in South Africa This essay gives a detailed coverage of the issue of apartheid in South Africa and its impact to the economy, politics and social life of South Africans.
• Negotiations to End Apartheid in South Africa The white rulers of the National Party initiated the apartheid system in South Africa. Although the governing national party reformed the apartheid system, the reformations could not stop the Africans from opposing the government.
• Apartheid Imagery in “A Walk in the Night” and “A Dry White Season” Superiority of white population in the country prevented the African population from establishing fair treatment, which led to the division of the inhabitants in racial groups and residential areas in which various ethnicities lived. The […]
• Israeli Apartheid Ideology Towards Palestinians Scholars, humanitarian organizations and the United Nations have also contributed to this discussion by critically evaluating Israel’s policy on the treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories and within the Israeli sovereign state.
• Apartheid in South: Historical Lenses The conclusions vary depending on lenses. Political attempt to control the population.
• South African Apartheid: Historical Lenses and Perception The research studied South African Apartheid’s social narrative as the addressed issues were the protests of the affected people and the regime’s consequences based on the societal changes.
• Jonathan Kozol “The Shame of Nation”: The Rationales of Apartheid Schooling The absence of discrimination written in a form of law appears to be enough for the government not to fight about ever-rising inequality in thousands of schools.
• Desmond Tutu’s Fight Against Apartheid Desmond Tutu is a South African Archbishop who rose to international fame in the late 1970s and the early 1980s because of his role in fighting apartheid a racial segregation policy in the RSA.
• Post-Apartheid Restorative Justice Reconciliation Asmal suggests that restorative justice and reconciliation were chosen out of a strong desire to end the illegitimate and violent governance of the old regime while ensuring that the nature of governance changes under the […]
• The Necessity to Fight Apartheid in South Africa One of the things that contributed to the development of South Africa is the dominance of the whites in the country.
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict vs. Apartheid in South Africa One of the first points that should be made is that ethnic conflicts were present in the history of many nations, but many countries were able to overcome them at least to some degree, for […]
• Apartheid, Its Causes and the Process The first point that is mentioned in the work is that the colonization by Europeans and their actions were characterized through the depletion of Gold and diamonds.
• South African Non-Violent Protests Against Apartheid In spite of the largely peaceful demonstrations, which the locals believed would limit casualties and bring the change they yearned for; security forces were deployed by the government to contain the protests.
• Apartheid: Nelson Mandela and Apartheid Liberation Movement
• Apartheid, Racial Segregation, and White Domination
• Labor Markets During Apartheid in South Africa
• South African Apartheid: Political Defiance Campaigns Against the Gover
• Comparing the Israeli Conflict With Palestine to the South African Apartheid
• Education and Distance Education in Apartheid South Africa
• South Africa and Apartheid: Have the Effects of Apartheid Disappeared
• Apartheid: Theory and Practice During the Apartheid Era
• Apartheid and Its Historical Background in South Africa
• Apartheid and Its Effects on Society
• Describing and Decomposing Post-apartheid Income Inequality in South Africa
• American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass
• How the Transition From Apartheid to Democracy Was Managed
• Apartheid and the System of Apartheid in South Africa
• Colonial Rule, Apartheid and Natural Resources: Top Incomes in South Africa, 1903-2007
• Racism, Slavery, and The Apartheid of South Africa
• International Sanctions and Apartheid Economic Constraints and the Response of the Government
• Victorian Anthropological Theories Reproduced by the Apartheid of South Africa
• The Socioeconomic and Cultural Impacts of Apartheid in Africa
• African Apartheid and Its Historical and Theoretical Context
• The Factors that Brought Apartheid to an End in 1994
• Apartheid and Post-Apartheid South Africa
• After Apartheid: The Effects of ANC Power
• Apartheid and the Struggles in Life of the Black People
• The History and Laws of Apartheid in South Africa
• The Various Changes that the Apartheid Brought in South Africa
• South Africa Crime Increases Since Apartheid Ending
• Apartheid Cessation and the Role Played by Social Groups
• The Relationship Between Capitalism, Slavery, Colonialism, and Apartheid
• Life After Apartheid South African Women
• Defiance of Apartheid Political Policy of Racial Segregation
• Reasons Behind the Ending of the Apartheid
• Police Intimidation During the Apartheid
• The South African Treason Trial and the Effect on Apartheid’s Success
• How Successful Were the Methods Used to Fight Apartheid in South Africa
• South Africa During and After the Apartheid
• Africans’ Lives Under Apartheid
• Apartheid: Systematic and Intention Oppression
• The Church’s Struggle Against Apartheid
• What Was the Main Idea of Apartheid?
• How Many People Died in Apartheid in South Africa?
• What Is Apartheid in Social Studies?
• Why Do We Study Apartheid?
• What Were the Groups of Apartheid?
• Who Was the Leader of Apartheid?
• What Are the Features of Apartheid?
• What Caused Apartheid in Africa?
• How Did Apartheid Affect People’s Life?
• What Is the Another Term for Apartheid?
• Who Helped South Africa During Apartheid?
• What Are Some Examples of Apartheid?
• What Is Apartheid Culture?
• What Is Apartheid and Its Effects?
• When Did Apartheid Start in Africa?
• What Is the Meaning of Apartheid in Oxford Dictionary?
• What Was the First Apartheid Law?
• When Was the Word Apartheid First Used?
• How Long Did Apartheid Last?
• Is Apartheid Taught in South African Schools?
• Why Is Apartheid Important to History?
• Who Was the Most Famous Person Who Fought Against Apartheid?
• Who Was the First Apartheid Leader?
• Who Decided to End Apartheid?
• Did the US Support Apartheid in South Africa?
• Where Did Apartheid Originate?
• What Caused the End of Apartheid?
• What Language Did They Speak During Apartheid?
• How Did Apartheid Affect Students?
• Did Russia Support South Africa During Apartheid?
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Apartheid South Africa 1940s to 1960s Essay for Grade 11

On this page, we guide grade 11 student on how to write “Apartheid South Africa 1940s to 1960s Essay”.

Apartheid in South Africa was a system of institutionalised racial segregation and discrimination that existed from the late 1940s until the early 1990s. This period in South African history is marked by the enforcement of legal policies and practices aimed at separating the races and maintaining white dominance in all aspects of life. The years between the 1940s and the 1960s were critical in laying the foundations and entrenching the policies that would define this era. This essay will explore the implementation of apartheid laws , resistance movements , and international reactions to apartheid from the 1940s to the 1960s.

Implementation of Apartheid Laws

The formal introduction of apartheid can be traced back to the National Party’s victory in the 1948 elections . The party, which represented the Afrikaner nationalist interest, institutionalised apartheid as a means of securing white dominance. Key legislation enacted during this period included:

• The Population Registration Act (1950): This act classified all South Africans into racial groups – ‘white’, ‘black’, ‘coloured’, and ‘Indian’. This classification was a prerequisite for the implementation of other apartheid laws.
• The Group Areas Act (1950): This law geographically segregated South Africans by race , determining where different racial groups could live, work, and own property.
• The Suppression of Communism Act (1950): Though ostensibly aimed at combating communism , this act was frequently used to silence critics of apartheid, including non-communists.

Resistance Movements

Resistance against apartheid came from various quarters, including political parties, trade unions, and individual activists. The most prominent of these movements included:

• The African National Congress (ANC): Initially adopting a policy of peaceful protest, the ANC organised strikes, boycotts, and civil disobedience campaigns. Following the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, the ANC shifted to a strategy of armed struggle .
• The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC): A breakaway from the ANC, the PAC also played a significant role in organising protests against apartheid, notably the anti-Pass Laws protest that led to the Sharpeville Massacre.
• Sharpeville Massacre (1960): A turning point in the resistance against apartheid, where a peaceful protest against pass laws in Sharpeville turned deadly, with police opening fire on demonstrators, resulting in 69 deaths.

International Reactions to Apartheid

The international community’s response to apartheid was initially muted, but as the realities of apartheid became more widely known, international condemnation grew. Significant aspects of the international reaction included:

• United Nations Condemnation: The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution in 1962 calling for sanctions against South Africa, urging member states to cease military and economic relations with the apartheid regime.
• Isolation in Sports: South Africa was banned from the Olympic Games and other international sporting events, highlighting the growing international isolation of the apartheid government.

Student Guide

When writing an essay on Apartheid in South Africa from the 1940s to the 1960s, focusing on clarity, depth, and evidence-based arguments is crucial. Here are some useful tips to enhance your essay writing:

• Start with a Strong Thesis Statement:
• Clearly state your essay’s main argument or analysis point at the end of your introduction. This sets the direction and tone of your essay. For example, “This essay argues that the apartheid laws enacted between the 1940s and 1960s not only institutionalised racial segregation but also laid the foundation for the resistance movements that eventually led to apartheid’s downfall.”
• Organise Your Essay Logically:
• Use subheadings to divide your essay into manageable sections, such as the implementation of apartheid laws, resistance movements, and international reactions. This helps readers follow your argument more easily.
• Use Evidence to Support Your Points:
• Incorporate specific examples and quotes from primary and secondary sources to back up your statements. For instance, reference the Population Registration Act when discussing racial classification or cite international condemnation from United Nations resolutions.
• Analyse, Don’t Just Describe:
• Go beyond simply describing events by analysing their impact and significance . For example, when discussing the Sharpeville Massacre, explore its effect on both the apartheid government’s policies and the tactics of resistance movements.
• Acknowledge Different Perspectives:
• While focusing on the factual history of apartheid, also acknowledge the various perspectives on apartheid policies and resistance efforts, including those of the government, opposition movements, and international bodies.
• Conclude Effectively:
• Summarise the main points of your essay and reiterate your thesis in the context of the information discussed. Offer a concluding thought that encourages further reflection, such as the legacy of apartheid in contemporary South Africa.
• Reference Accurately:
• Ensure all sources are accurately cited in your essay to avoid plagiarism and to lend credibility to your arguments. Follow the specific referencing style required by your teacher or educational institution.
• Proofread and Revise:
• Check your essay for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. Also, ensure that your argument flows logically and that each section supports your thesis statement.
• Seek Feedback:
• Before final submission, consider getting feedback from teachers, peers, or tutors. Fresh eyes can offer valuable insights and identify areas for improvement.

By incorporating these tips, you can create a well-argued, informative, and engaging essay on Apartheid in South Africa that meets the expectations of a Grade 11 history assignment.

The period from the 1940s to the 1960s was pivotal in the establishment and consolidation of the apartheid system in South Africa. Through the enactment of draconian laws, the apartheid government institutionalised racial discrimination, which led to widespread resistance within the country and condemnation from the international community. This era laid the groundwork for the struggles and transformations that would eventually lead to the end of apartheid.

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The June 16 Soweto Youth Uprising

Introduction

The June 16 1976 Uprising that began in Soweto and spread countrywide profoundly changed the socio-political landscape in South Africa. Events that triggered the uprising can be traced back to policies of the Apartheid government that resulted in the introduction of the Bantu Education Act in 1953. The rise of the Black Consciousness Movement  (BCM) and the formation of South African Students Organisation  (SASO) raised the political consciousness of many students while others joined the wave of anti-Apartheid sentiment within the student community. When the language of Afrikaans alongside English was made compulsory as a medium of instruction in schools in 1974, black students began mobilizing themselves. On 16 June 1976 between 3000 and 10 000 students mobilized by the South African Students Movement 's Action Committee supported by the BCM marched peacefully to demonstrate and protest against the government’s directive. The march was meant to culminate at a rally in Orlando Stadium.

On their pathway they were met by heavily armed police who fired teargas and later live ammunition on demonstrating students. This resulted in a widespread revolt that turned into an uprising against the government. While the uprising began in Soweto, it spread across the country and carried on until the following year.

The aftermath of the events of June 16 1976 had dire consequences for the Apartheid government. Images of the police firing on peacefully demonstrating students led an international revulsion against South Africa as its brutality was exposed. Meanwhile, the weakened and exiled liberation movements received new recruits fleeing political persecution at home giving impetus to the struggle against Apartheid. 

Bantu Education Policy

The word  ‘Bantu’ in the term Bantu education is highly charged politically and has derogatory connotations. The Bantu Educational system was designed to ‘train and fit’ Africans for their role in the newly (1948) evolving  apartheid society. Education was viewed as a part of the overall apartheid system including ‘homelands’, urban restrictions, pass laws and job reservation. This role was one of labourer, worker, and servant only. As H.F Verwoerd, the architect of the Bantu Education Act (1953) , conceived it:

“There is no place for [the African] in the European community above the level of certain forms of labour. It is of no avail for him to receive a training which has as its aim, absorption in the European community”

Pre-apartheid education of Africans

It is mistaken however, to understand that there was no pre-apartheid educational marginalization of black South Africans. Long before the historic 1948 white elections that gave the Nationalist Party power, there was a system of segregated and unequal education in the country. While white schooling was free, compulsory and expanding, black education was sorely neglected. Financial underprovision and an urban influx led to gravely insufficient schooling facilities, teachers and educational materials as well as student absenteeism or non-enrolment. A 1936 Inquiry identified problems, only to have almost nothing done about these needs.

Bantu education and the racist compartmentalizing of education.

In 1949 the government appointed the Eiselen Commission with the task of considering African education provision. The Commission recommended 'resorting to radical measures' for the 'effective reform of the Bantu school system'.

In 1953, prior to the apartheid government's Bantu Education Act, 90% of black South African schools were state-aided mission schools. The Act demanded that all such schools register with the state, and removed control of African education from the churches and provincial authorities. This control was centralized in the Bantu Education Department, a body dedicated to keeping it separate and inferior. Almost all the mission schools closed down. The Roman Catholic Church was largely alone in its attempt to keep its schools going without state aid. The 1953 Act also separated the financing of education for Africans from general state spending and linked it to direct tax paid by Africans themselves, with the result that far less was spent on black children than on white children.

In 1954--5 black teachers and students protested against Bantu Education. The African Education Movement was formed to provide alternative education. For a few years, cultural clubs operated as informal schools, but by 1960 they had closed down.

The Extension of University Education Act, Act 45 of 1959, put an end to black students attending white universities (mainly the universities of Cape Town and Witwatersrand). Separating tertiary institutions according to race, this Act set up separate 'tribal colleges' for black university students. The so-called 'bush' Universities such as Fort Hare, Vista, Venda, Western Cape were formed. Blacks could no longer freely attend white universities. Again, there were strong protests.

Expenditure on Bantu Education increased from the late 1960s, once the apartheid Nationalist government saw the need for a trained African labour force. Through this, more African children attended school than under the old missionary system of education, albeit grossly deprived of facilities in comparison with the education of other races, especially whites.

Nationally, pupil:teacher ratios went up from 46:1 in 1955 to 58:1 in 1967. Overcrowded classrooms were used on a rota basis. There was also a lack of teachers, and many of those who did teach were underqualified. In 1961, only 10 per cent of black teachers held a matriculation certificate [last year of high school]. Black education was essentially retrogressing, with teachers being less qualified than their students.

The Coloured Person's Education Act of 1963 put control of 'coloured' education under the Department of Coloured Affairs. 'Coloured' schools also had to be registered with the government. 'Coloured' education was made compulsory, but was now effectively separated from white schooling.

The 1965 Indian Education Act was passed to separate and control Indian education, which was placed under the Department of Indian Affairs. In 1976, the SAIC took over certain educational functions. Indian education was also made compulsory.

Because of the government's 'homelands' policy, no new high schools were built in Soweto between 1962 and 1971 -- students were meant to move to their relevant homeland to attend the newly built schools there. Then in 1972 the government gave in to pressure from business to improve the Bantu Education system to meet business's need for a better trained black workforce. 40 new schools were built in Soweto. Between 1972 and 1976 the number of pupils at secondary schools increased from 12,656 to 34,656. One in five Soweto children were attending secondary school.

Oppression through inferior education and the 1976 Soweto uprising

An increase in secondary school attendance had a significant effect on youth culture. Previously, many young people spent the time between leaving primary school and obtaining a job (if they were lucky) in gangs, which generally lacked any political consciousness. But now secondary school students were developing their own. In 1969 the black South African Student Organization (SASO) was formed.

Though Bantu Education was designed to deprive Africans and isolate them from 'subversive' ideas, indignation at being given such 'gutter' education became a major focus for resistance, most notably in the 1976 Soweto uprising. In the wake of this effective and clear protest, some reform attempts were made, but it was a case of too little, too late. Major disparities in racially separate education provision continued into the 1990s.

When high-school students in Soweto started protesting for better education on 16 June 1976, police responded with teargas and live bullets. It is commemorated today by a South African national holiday, Youth day, which honors all the young people who lost their lives in the struggle against Apartheid and Bantu Education.

In the 1980s very little education at all took place in the Bantu Education system, which was the target of almost continuous protest. The legacy of decades of inferior education (underdevelopment, poor self-image, economic depression, unemployment, crime, etc.) has lasted far beyond the introduction of a single educational system in 1994 with the first democratic elections, and the creation of the Government of National Unity.

Strikes in the Schools

Presumably, not all students of the earlier generation 'worshipped the school authorities'! The first, recorded stoppages of lessons, (always called strikes in the South African newspapers), and the first riots in African schools occurred in 1920. In February, students at the Kilnerton training centre went on a hunger strike 'for more food'... read on

Cape Schools Join the Revolt

The school students in Cape Town reacted to the news they heard of events in Soweto. A teacher at one of the Coloured schools was later to write: 'We haven't done much by way of teaching since the Soweto riots first began. Kids were restless, tense and confused. 'There is no similar record of what the African children thought, but it is known that they were aware of the extra police patrols that were set up in the townships following June 16. After the first shootings in Cape Town, a teacher at one of the schools recounted... read on

The NUSAS Issue

Throughout the 1960's black students campaigned for the right to affiliate to the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) and just as steadfastly, the move was vetoed by the campus authorities. NUSAS was also keen to welcome the colleges into their fold. Not only would this make it the largest student organisation in the country, but it would also bring into the liberal ''old all student opponents of the government's apartheid policy.... read on

Down with Afrikaans

Countdown to conflict: The main cause of the protests that started in African schools in the Transvaal at the beginning of 1975 was a directive from the Bantu Education Department that Afrikaans had to be used on an equal basis with English as one of the languages of instruction in the department's secondary schools... read on

The introduction of Afrikaans alongside English as a medium of instruction is considered the immediate cause of the Soweto uprising, but there are a various factors behind the 1976 student unrest. These factors can certainly be traced back to the Bantu Education Act introduced by the Apartheid government in 1953. The Act introduced a new Department of Bantu Education which was integrated into the Department of Native Affairs under Dr Hendrik F. Verwoerd. The provisions of the Bantu Education Act and some policy statements made by the Bantu Education Department were directly responsible for the uprisings. Dr Verwoerd, who engineered the Bantu Education Act, announced that “Natives (blacks) must be taught from an early age that equality with Europeans (whites) is not for them”.

Although the Bantu Education Act made it easier for more children to attend school in Soweto than it had been with the missionary system of education, there was a great deal of discontent about the lack of facilities. Throughout the country there was a dire shortage of classrooms for Black children. There was also a lack of teachers and many of the teachers were under-qualified. Nationally, pupil-to-teacher ratios went up from 46:1 in 1955 to 58:1 in 1967. Because of the lack of proper classrooms and the crippling government homeland policy, students were forced to return to “their homelands” to attend the newly built schools there.

The government was spending far more on White education than on Black education; R644 was spent annually for each White student, while only R42 was budgeted for a Black school child. In 1976 there were 257 505 pupils enrolled in Form 1 at high schools which had a capacity for only 38 000 students.

To alleviate the situation pupils who had passed their standard six examinations were requested to repeat the standard. This was met with great resentment by the students and their parents. Although the situation did not lead to an immediate revolt, it certainly served to build up tensions prior to the 1976 student uprising.

In 1975 the government was phasing out Standard Eight (or Junior Certificate (JC)). By then, Standard Six had already been phased out and many students graduating from Primary Schools were being sent to the emerging Junior Secondary Schools. It was in these Junior Secondary schools that the 50-50 language rule was to be applied.

The issue that caused massive discontent and made resentment boil over into the 1976 uprising was a decree issued by the Bantu Education Department. Deputy Minister Andries Treurnicht sent instructions to the School Boards, inspectors and principals to the effect that Afrikaans should be put on an equal basis with English as a medium of instruction in all schools. These instructions drew immediate negative reaction from various quarters of the community. The first body to react was the Tswana School Boards, which comprised school boards from Meadowlands, Dobsonville and other areas in Soweto. The minutes of the meeting of the Tswana School Board held on 20 January 1976 read:

 "The circuit inspector told the board that the Secretary for Bantu Education has stated that all direct taxes paid by the Black population of South Africa are being sent to the various homelands for educational purposes there. 

"In urban areas the education of a Black child is being paid for by the White population, that is English and Afrikaans speaking groups. Therefore the Secretary for Bantu Education has the responsibility of satisfying the English and Afrikaans-speaking people. Consequently, as the only way of satisfying both groups, the medium of instruction in all schools shall be on a 50-50 basis.... In future, if schools teach through a medium not prescribed by the department for a particular subject, examination question papers will only be set in the medium with no option of the other language".

Teachers also raised objections to the government announcement. Some Black teachers, who were members of the African Teachers Association of South Africa, complained that they were not fluent in Afrikaans. The students initially organised themselves into local cultural groups and youth clubs. At school there was a significant number of branches of the Students Christian Movements (SCMs), which were largely apolitical in character. SASM penetrated these formations between 1974 and 1976. And when conditions ripened for the outbreak of protests, SASM formed an Action Committee on 13 June 1976, which was later renamed the Soweto Student Representative Council (SSRC). They were conscientised and influenced by national organisations such as the Black Peoples' Convention (BPC), South African Student Organisations (SASO)and by the Black Consciousness philosophy. They rejected the idea of being taught in the language of the oppressor.

The uprising took place at a time when liberation movements were banned throughout the country and South Africa was in the grip of apartheid. The protest started off peacefully in Soweto but it turned violent when the police opened fire on unarmed students. By the third day the unrest had gained momentum and spread to townships around Soweto and other parts of the country. The class of 1976 bravely took to the streets and overturned the whole notion that workers were the only essential force to challenge the apartheid regime. Indeed, they succeeded where their parents had failed. They not only occupied city centres but also closed schools and alcohol outlets.

June 16 Soweto Youth Uprising

Timeline of June 16

It is hard to get a clear picture of what exactly happened on the day of June 16th. Most of the information comes from eyewitness accounts of students who participated, journalists who were on the scene, as well as the police reports on the events. As with all history, a lot depends on the perspective of the person telling the story as well as those who have subsequently written about it. Some accounts directly contradict each other. We are not endeavouring to write an objective account but are providing a platform for people to tell their own stories which we hope will form an accurate portrayal of events. Please send us an e-mail us and tell us if any of the information is factually incorrect.

Not all the children who were to participate in the march on June 16 knew about it on the morning of the 16th. For many it was an ordinary school day. But, by this time, students were feeling very frustrated and dissatisfied with the Bantu education system in general and the introduction of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. It was exam time for the senior students and many were scared that they would fail the exams if they would have to write in Afrikaans.

Nonetheless the march that was planned by the Action Committee of the Soweto Students Representative Council (SSRC) was well organised and was to be conducted in a peaceful way. The leaders of the original march, mainly came from two high schools, Naledi High in Naledi and Morris Isaacson in Mofolo. Sfiso Ndlovo argues, however, that the main centre of organisational activity was Phefeni Junior Secondary , close to Vilakazi Street in Orlando. Phefeni was certainly close to the railway station from which many students got off their trains to join the march. The plan was that students from Naledi High were to march from their direction and pick up students from the schools on their way. The Morris Isaacson students were to march from their school doing the same until they met at a central point where they would proceed peacefully together to the Orlando Stadium. Other schools also were part of the original plan but it is not clear that the students at all those schools were fully aware of the march.

The first students to gather together were at Naledi High. The mood was high spirited and jovial. At assembly the principal gave support to the children and wished them good luck. The first chairperson of the Action Committee, Tepello Motopanyane addressed them and informed them that discipline and a peaceful march were to be the order of the day.

Meanwhile, at Morris Isaacson students also gathered. They were also addressed by one of the leaders of the Action Committee, Tsietsi Mashinini, and then set out.

On the way they passed by other schools, where some were waiting and those who were not were recruited on the spot to join.

- Dan Moyane Morris Isaacson High School

"The first time we heard of it was during our short break. Our leaders informed the principal that students from Morris Isaacson were marching. We then joined one of the groups and marched."

- Sam Khosa Ibhongo secondary School

In the end there were 11 columns of students marching to Orlando Stadium to meet at the central point of "Uncle Toms" Municipal hall. Before this point, there had been some minor skirmishes with police but it was here that police stopped them, barricading their path. Other schools had been stopped by the police earlier on and had dispersed but managed to join later. It is hard to determine how many students there were, estimates range from 1 000 to 10 000.

The march was halted and some people helped Tietsi Mashinini climb up onto a tractor so that everyone could see him when he addressed the crowd:

Brothers and Sisters, I appeal to you-keep calm and cool. We have just received a report that the police are coming. Don't taunt them, don't do anything to them. Be cool and calm. We are not fighting.

It was a tense moment for both the police and the students. Police reports stated that the situation was explosive and they retreated to await further reinforcements.

The students carried on marching until they got to what is now Hector Petersen Square, close to Orlando High School. The march came to a halt again. Different reports of what actually started the shooting have been put forward.

"Despite the tense atmosphere the students remained calm and well ordered. Suddenly a white policeman lobbed a teargas canister into the front of the crowd. People ran out of the smoke dazed and coughing. The crowd retreated slightly but remained facing the police, waving placards and singing. A white policeman drew his revolver. Black journalists standing by the police heard a shot: "Look at him. He's going to shoot at the kids". A single shot ran out. There was a split seconds silence and pandemonium broke out. Children screamed. More shots were fired. At least four students fell and others ran screaming in all directions." Brooks & Brickhill Whirlwind before the storm, 1980

After the first massacre, the students fled in different directions. Anger at the senseless killings inspired retaliatory action. West Rand Administrative Buildings (WRAB) vehicles and buildings were set alight and burned to the ground, a white WRAB official was pulled out of his car and beaten to death, bottlestores were burned and looted. Other encounters with the police occurred where more students were killed especially in the vicinity of the Regina Mhundi church in Orlando and the Esso garage in Chiawelo. As students were stopped by the police in one area they moved their protest action to others. By the end of the day most of Soweto, including Diepkloof, which was relatively quiet during the morning, had felt the impact of the protest. For the students at some schools, this was the first they heard or saw. Schools were closed early at about 12:00 and many students walked out of school to a township on fire.

"It was past twelve, past twelve to one. Sister Joseph allowed us to go home, because now it was chaos around. So when we went home we could see that now cars were burning, especially the company cars, those from town, those owned by whites".

As more students were let out of school they joined those protesters that were closest to them. Some accounts see the events of the afternoon to be chaos or a "free for all" especially on the basis that bottlestores and beerhalls were raided and looted. The apartheid press certainly tried to portray it that way. It was clear that the events of the afternoon were not organised and an atmosphere of panic and defiance existed. However, others argue that the students attacked targets for political reasons and were disciplined in who and what they attacked. A white university student who was sympathetic was actually taken to safety by the schoolchildren themselves. It was overwhelmingly, WRAB structures and cars that were razed. One black owned business was attacked, the shop of Richard Maponya but this was deliberate. Maponya was a wealthy businessman who was despised by most people because "he exploits us and is a sell out".

There probably was an element of free for all in the looting of bottlestores. Many students came home with booze and a lot of people enjoyed the results of the plunder. But people had long seen alcohol as a method used by the apartheid government to try and make black people apathetic. Most of the beerhalls were built by the municipality. People were shouting "less liquor, better education". There were probably different motivations at play in the raids of the bottlestores. In any political protest there are those that are more politically motivated and disciplined than others, to see it as one or the other is to misunderstand the nature of political mass action.

Fires continued blazing into the night. At 21:00 Armoured Police cars later known as Hippos started moving into Soweto. Official figures were that 23 people had been killed, but some reports estimated that it was at least 200. It is hard to know how many people had been killed because of police efforts to cover up the number of people who died.

Events on June 17

The second day... was marked by uncontrollable fury and burning hostility...Police also assumed another attitude. They shot at random, and at anyone who would raise a fist and shout "Power", into their face

Many others joined the original protesters. Not everyone had heard about Hector Petersen and the others who were killed yet, but the word was spreading.

The following day I pick up stones. I joined the struggle....On the 16th I just came home and stay...because we formed the slogan "an injury to one is an injury to all" So we were supposed to be there.

- Solomon Marikele Rhulane Senior Primary

The heavily biased Cilliers Report for this day sums up the events. Schools, trains, buses, delivery vehicles, West Rand Administrative Buildings (WRAB) buildings, cars of business people, all were targeted. The fury and frustration that had been simmering amongst township youth had free reign. There was enormous police presence on the morning of the 17th 1500 police armed with sten guns, automatic rifles, and hand machine carbines had taken up strategic positions in the township. Helicopters flew overhead. The army was on standby. The police force had never developed other methods of crowd control other than the use of live bullets. The police shot at people indiscriminately and casualties were even higher than the day before.

The violent reaction of the police only made the children angrier.

At a press conference Mr. Manie Mulder announced that nearly all the WRAB buildings in Soweto had been destroyed. This amounted to 21 offices being burnt down, 10 being plundered, 3 schools burnt as well as unknown numbers of municipal halls, beerhalls, bottlestores.

The Rand had lost value overnight. Thousands of workers had refused to go to work. It was indeed a crisis for the Apartheid government. It was also a serious loss of face in light of US Secretary of State, Henry Kissingers impending visit to South Africa.

To add to this, 300 predominantly white Wits students marched through the city centre to protest the killing of schoolchildren. As they marched through the streets they were joined by many black workers.

At this point the political leadership of the Soweto Students Representative Council (SSRC), SASM and other organisations were desperately trying to take leadership of the protest and to channel the anger of the youth and to give the movement political direction. The ANC in exile called for immediate international action and the intensification of economic sanctions. The protest action also spread to other townships around Soweto. In Thembisa, students organised a solidarity march, which, although heavily guarded did not result in violence. In Kagiso, police tried to stop a gathering of students and adults; the result was a forced retreat and the destruction of WRAB buildings, vehicles and schools. When the police returned with reinforcements, they shot indiscriminately into the crowd, killing at least five people.

Events on June 18

On the third day of the Uprising 18th June, the situation in Soweto was still volatile. Outside butchery in Moroka there were some fatalities. Fires were blazing in many Soweto townships, like Zola, Ikwezi, Moletsane, Naledi and Tladi. Administrative buildings, wine stores and beer halls, which were hated by the young people, were also set on fire. Buses and cars running through Soweto were burned. Police intensified their terror in trying to return the situation to normality in the township. However this angered the insurgents young people and brought them up against heavily armed police. They used stones to counter armoured police cars, helicopters and guns. At about 10 a.m the chairman of the West Rand Administrative Board (WRAB) Manie Mulder was in Soweto to asses the situation. He was escorted by a large police vans. All the WRAB owned cars that had escaped being burned were taken out of Soweto after Mulder's visit. The columns of cars drove past Orlando police station into the direction of Johannesburg.

But in general the action on this day had already moved to the East and West Rand and Alexandra townships as well as other parts of the country. The people in other parts of the country were not revolting to pledge their solidarity with the people of Soweto. They shared the same problem, the same sorrows and the same causes of resentment and rebellion. A general stawaway was organised in Alexandra Township and four people were killed when the police opened fire on marching residents. The government, which for the first time publicly addressed the issue, and justified the harsh measures taken by the police. There were some reports of students seizing weapons from police and using them to shoot back.

Response to the June 16 Soweto Youth Uprising by organisations in exile

June 16 marks the commemoration of National Youth Day in South Africa. This is the day the country reflects on the massacre of school children during the Soweto Uprising of 1976. The response of the organisations in exile can be understood in the context of the events that took place on the day. The students had organised a peaceful march against the Afrikaans Medium Decree, issued in 1974, which made it mandatory for Black schools to use the Afrikaans language as the medium of instruction in Mathematics, Social Sciences and Geography at the secondary school level. Punt Janson, the Deputy Minister of then Bantu Education, was quoted as saying: “I have not consulted the African people on the language issue and I’m not going to. An African might find that ‘the big boss’ spoke only Afrikaans or spoke only English. It would be to his advantage to know both languages.”

The policy was deeply unpopular since Afrikaans was regarded by some as the language of the oppressor. It was against this background that on 30 April 1976, students from the Orlando West Junior School in Soweto went on strike and boycotted classes. By 16 June, their rebellion spread to other schools in Soweto. Incidentally, the student-organised mass rally on this date turned violent, as the police responded with bullets to stones thrown by the angry students. Many students were shot. The official death toll was 23, but it could have been higher than 200 because the incident triggered widespread violence throughout South Africa, which claimed more lives. The first student to be shot on that fateful day was 15-year old Hastings Ndlovu. However, the killing in the same incident of Hector Pieterson, aged 12, and in particular the publication of his photograph taken by Sam Nzima, made him an international icon of the uprising. It became the major rallying point of the struggle against apartheid.

Military Response: Camps in exile

The incident triggered widespread violence not only in Soweto but also throughout South Africa. For the political organisations in exile, notably, the African National Congress(ANC) and Pan Africanist Congress(PAC), the Soweto unrest in June 1976 provided a golden opportunity both for recruitment and military training of young men and women. Many Black people felt in danger of being arrested by the police and further underground activities were launched as a result of this threat. Discreet recruitment operations culminated in many incensed students taking up arms against the government, and being sent for military training. Hence the mushrooming of military camps such as Mkhumbane in Temeke (Tanzania) outside the country, under the command and mentorship of Ntate Mashego and the Engineering camp in Angola. Recruits were advised on how to unlawfully cross the border(s) into Botswana, Swaziland, Angola, Mozambique and Tanzania, where they received military training. It is essential to note that the accession to power of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) in Mozambique and the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in Angola in 1975, together with the exodus of thousands of young people in the months following the Soweto uprising, created favourable conditions for the resumption of sabotage activity in South Africa, especially after the collapse of the ANC/Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU) joint operation (i.e. the Wankie Campaign ). These developments were followed by the infiltration of trained fighters back into South Africa, bombings of white installations and the subsequent arrest and trials of anti-apartheid activists.

Clearly, an issue that gave rise to a vast number of trials under security legislation was the massive recruitment of people and their transportation out of South Africa. While there is certainly some indication that this was already on the increase prior to June 1976, the revolts of 1976 gave an enormous boost to the activity of organisations recruiting members for military training. This is especially so in the case of the ANC, but there is also some evidence that PAC activity had been revitalised to some extent. As a result, there were many South Africans in ANC and PAC training camps. The period also witnessed a large number of trials against recruitment for military training. Those who were brought to trial for this offence seemed to reach a peak in 1977 and the first part of 1978. Many trained guerrilla fighters returned to South Africa, often wielding a large quantity of arms, explosives and ammunition. This group included the Black school children who fled or were recruited in the wake of the June 1976 rebellion. Their activities gave rise to a number of trials as exemplified by the case of Petrus Bushy Molefe, aged 22, who underwent training in East Germany, and was charged for sabotage and terrorism under the Sabotage and Terrorism Acts of June 1962 and June 1967 respectively. Related to this was the large quantity of arms and ammunition found by police in their attempts to uncover guerrillas in the urban areas and in clashes in the rural areas. It is important to note that most of the arms caches that were uncovered comprised weapons originating from the then Soviet Union, and the Eastern bloc countries, which suggests that the West was not prepared to lend similar support to the Southern African liberation movements.<

On 30 November 1976 a group of armed guerrillas clashed with the South African Police near Bordergate, on the Swaziland/South African border. A hand grenade was detonated by one of the guerrillas, injuring two policemen, and allowing the insurgents to escape. Shortly before this incident a railway line near Dikgale, in the Pietersburg district, was damaged in a successful sabotage attempt. From December 1976, in a series of raids covering Johannesburg, Soweto, Alexandra, Rustenburg, Odi, Nebo, Pietersburg and Sekhukhuniland, security police detained a number of ANC activists. Towards the middle of 1977 twelve accused activists, who included Mosima Gabriel “Tokyo” Sexwale, were charged under the Terrorism Act in the famous trial of the “Pretoria 12”. They were mainly accused of being members or active supporters of certain unlawful organisations in South Africa, Swaziland, Mozambique, Russia and China such as the ANC, the South African Communist Party(SACP) and Umkhonto we Sizwe(MK). They were also alternately charged with endangering, in various ways, the maintenance of law and order in South Africa; undergoing military and other training; possession of explosives, ammunition, firearms and weapons; harbouring and rendering assistance to guerrillas; as well as taking part in the activities of a banned organisation. On the whole, they were accused of conspiring to overthrow the white government and were all convicted on the main count of sedition.

Thus, the response of the political organisations operating in exile was one that was premised on mobilisation, recruitment of people and the organisation of the armed phase of the struggle from outside in order to topple the apartheid government. Clearly, the events of the Soweto revolt and the response from the liberation movement in exile are not isolated developments. They have their roots in the spirit of resistance to the growing crisis of apartheid. The collective resistance to oppression and exploitation in South Africa also fundamentally underpins the relationship that was forged between internal and external forms of organisation after this incident. It led to major transformations in the strategies of the various exiled liberation movements more in accordance with the changing conditions in the country. A militant approach, that found expression in the recruitment and subsequent training of the cadres in neighbouring as well as some European and Asian countries, was emphasised.

References to Youth and the National Liberation Struggle 1894-1994

• Brits, J. P. (1995). The Concise Dictionary of Historical and Political Terms , London: Penguin.
• Christie, P. (1991). The Right to Learn: The Struggle for Education in South Africa , Johannesburg: Sached Trust/Ravan Press.
• Cross, M. (1992). Resistance and Transformation: Education Culture and Reconstruction in South Africa , Johannesburg: Skotaville.
• Howcroft, P. unpublished South African Encyclopaedia papers.
• Kallaway, P. (ed) (1984). Apartheid and Education: The Education of Black South Africans , Johannesburg: Ravan Press.
• Saunders, C. & Southey, N. (1998). A Dictionary of South African History , Cape Town: David Philip.

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Calls for divestment from apartheid South Africa gave today’s pro-Palestinian student activists a blueprint to follow

Assistant Professor of History, University of California, Santa Barbara

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Amanda Joyce Hall has been a recipient of the U.S. Fulbright Student Fellowship Program, The Ford Foundation Fellowship, and the Institute for Citizens and Scholars Newcombe Fellowship.

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In recent weeks, college campuses across the U.S. have been roiled by pro-Palestinian protests , with the police called in to arrest demonstrators and students threatened with expulsion.

But there’s nothing unusual about the protesters’ tactics of taking over university buildings and erecting tent encampments on college lawns and quads.

These students, whose actions build on years of organizing spearheaded by the Students for Justice in Palestine, are part of a long history of radical student organizing.

There are echoes of both the protests against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s and, more recently, of South African apartheid in the 1980s.

In the 1980s, U.S. student activists worked to make higher education “ South Africa Free .” They urged institutions of higher learning to commit to divest all assets held in endowments that were tied to doing business in or with South Africa.

Over the past 10 years, I’ve researched and written about these Black-led anti-apartheid movements, with a particular focus on student campaigns .

By calling out complicity on the part of colleges, corporations and the government in South Africa’s system of apartheid, student activists were able to show that demands for divestment could be a concrete and effective form of protest.

A movement decades in the making

Apartheid was a racist and exploitative project that white South African officials had developed over decades.

Segregationist laws and land seizure policies created a captive, impoverished Black population, whose exploitation and disenfranchisement supported the economic prosperity of the governing white minority.

Originally, the idea to push for the sale of assets tied to corporations doing business in South Africa stemmed from the directives of the South African liberation movements , which called for a total economic, cultural and diplomatic boycott of the country’s white minority government.

The foremost South African liberation movements were the African National Congress , formed in 1912, and the Pan Africanist Congress , established in 1959. The South African government banned both organizations in 1960 , forcing organizers to build their movements in exile.

In response, anti-apartheid organizers around the world developed creative ways to heed the call.

In the late 1960s, for example, U.S. students targeted U.S. banks that lent to the South African government, calling them “ partner[s] in apartheid .”

And the Students for a Democratic Society and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee coordinated a sit-in at Chase Manhattan Bank in New York City in 1965.

Following the 1976 Soweto uprising , in which South African police massacred at least 150 children, some U.S. workers began to demand that their pension funds be “ South Africa Free ,” and students at U.S. colleges and universities organized some of the first protests calling for the divestment of their schools’ endowments.

The 1977 formation of the Committee to Oppose Bank Loans to South Africa made economic withdrawal a centerpiece of the U.S. anti-apartheid movement, one that grew stronger both on and off campus in the decade that followed.

Calls for divestment grow

At its climax in 1985 and 1986, protests for total economic isolation of South Africa surfaced at more than 200 colleges and universities across the U.S.

Whether they were enrolled at historically Black colleges and universities, liberal arts colleges, Ivy League schools or public universities, students coordinated a national divestment movement, pushing the issue of U.S. investment in South Africa to the center of American intellectual and civic life.

Student organizing formed the militant grassroots basis for the U.S. anti-apartheid movement and contributed to the economic, political and cultural isolation of South Africa’s violent and repressive white minority regime.

Students assembled blockades, organized “sit-outs,” occupied buildings and built “ shantytowns ” – made to resemble the makeshift dwellings in which many Black South Africans lived under apartheid – at more than 100 universities.

These shantytown protests marked the culmination of nearly a decade of campus anti-apartheid organizing. Thousands of students at hundreds of campuses erected encampments to try to “ stop business as usual ,” as student groups put it.

Persistence pays off

At schools across the country , university administrators ordered police to dismantle the shantytowns .

University backlash ended up only amplifying support for the movement as media flocked to the shantytowns , while faculty, parents and alumni rallied around the students.

Students, in turn, rebuilt their encampments . Joining them were supporters from beyond the university: musicians, politicians, and New Left and Black Power activists. The presence of feminist political activist Angela Davis , counterculture activist Mario Savio , poet June Jordan , writer Amiri Baraka and Pan-Africanism organizer Kwame Ture helped draw further national attention to student demands.

The highly publicized determination of the students helped turn the tide of public opinion . Founded by Black organizers Randall Robinson , Mary Frances Berry , Eleanor Holmes Norton and Walter Fauntroy , the Free South Africa Movement – working closely with the foreign policy advocacy organization TransAfrica – led hundreds of students and everyday people in a picket outside the South African Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Many of the activists and student protesters were arrested . But by calling out specific corporations doing business in South Africa and popularizing corporate ties to anti-Black violence, oppression and massacres in a foreign country, students succeeded in making investments in those stocks riskier and unattractive .

After two years of sustained militant organizing and demonstrations, the student anti-apartheid movement claimed to have gotten colleges and universities to divest about US$3.6 billion – or $10.3 billion in today’s dollars – from their endowments.

Revisionist history

In 1990, after 27 years of imprisonment, African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela was released from prison .

By then, South Africa’s system of apartheid was crumbling. The reinstatement of the liberation movements in 1990, the repeal of segregationist laws in 1991 and the first democratic election of 1994 signaled the official end of apartheid, though discrimination and inequality persist in South Africa to this day .

In the collective memory of the U.S., anti-Vietnam and anti-apartheid movements are generally seen as righteous struggles that U.S. institutions couldn’t help but get behind.

Perhaps that’s why, after the death of Mandela in 2013, the University of California, Berkeley, administration claimed to be at the forefront of student divestment protests for South Africa.

This was revisionist history.

In fact, at Berkeley and across many campuses, administrators called the police on protesters, threatened to revoke their scholarships, took others to court and ordered custodial staff to demolish the shanties.

Past as present

Activists, scholars and even former U.S. President Jimmy Carter have drawn comparisons between South African apartheid and Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories. Many Palestinians refer to the 440-mile (708 km) separation barrier that Israel erected along the Gaza Strip as the “ Wall of Apartheid .”

Still, there are some notable differences between the two movements.

Divestment is trickier today because financial instruments are more complex than they were in the 1980s, in part due to the outsourcing of their management to investment firms and hedge funds. The size of many university endowments have also grown exponentially since then .

Nonetheless, I believe divestment from companies doing business with Israel is still possible – and can be an effective demand. Several college administrations have agreed to consider divestment , including Brown University, Northwestern University, Evergreen State College and the University of Minnesota.

The U.S. anti-apartheid movement of the 1980s helped topple South Africa’s apartheid government . Back then, campus anti-apartheid occupations placed students at the forefront of changing the national consensus on U.S. complicity with injustice in South Africa.

Time will tell whether today’s students can do the same with regards to Israel’s systematic oppression of the Palestinian people.

• South Africa
• Vietnam War
• Anti-Apartheid Movement
• University endowments
• University divestment
• Philanthropy and nonprofits
• Global divestment movement
• Higher ed attainment
• Campus protests
• 2024 campus protests
• BDS movement

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The Deadly Prelude to South Africa’s First Free Elections

The vote in 1994 was a time of hope — but in the weeks before, the country came close to the abyss. A photographer remembers what he witnessed.

Young men in Bekkersdal, a Black township west of Johannesburg, dragging the body of a comrade killed in street battles in February 1994. Credit...

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Photographs and Text by Joao Silva

The photographer, who is based in South Africa, where he grew up, spent the first years of his career documenting the end of apartheid. He has been working for The New York Times since 1997. He took these pictures in 1994, for The Associated Press.

• May 27, 2024

Thirty years ago, Black South Africans voted for the first time as the country celebrated the monumental birth of a democracy. As I write this, South Africa is bathed in warm winter sunlight and South Africans are free.

That day, April 27, 1994, changed the lives of everyone in the country. I was there. But I can only vaguely remember it.

I do, however, vividly remember the cost in human lives that led to that victorious day, as what amounted to a proxy war fueled by elements of the apartheid state pitted ethnic groups against one another. Those who hoped the bloodshed would derail democratic negotiations conveniently called it Black-on-Black violence.

Four years passed between Nelson Mandela’s release from prison and that first real election. In that time, as the apartheid government slowly settled the terms of its dissolution with political leaders it had long sought to suppress, 14,000 people died violently.

Many South Africans have perhaps chosen to forget. Younger ones may simply not know. But here is what I saw in the months before the vote.

Whole neighborhoods were abandoned as people fled their homes. Nameless corpses littered the empty streets for hours before the morgue wagons would collect them, on display on unpaved roads as a warning for all to see.

Nine days before the elections, the country was burning. It was a last push between warring factions. The Inkatha Freedom Party — a powerful Zulu political and cultural movement — was preparing to boycott the vote, saying the new settlement gave too little power to territories like KwaZulu, where it had long ruled. The bodies piled up.

On that day, April 18, 1994, I found myself in Khumalo Street in Thokoza, a Black township east of Johannesburg.

To my left lay Ken Oosterbroek, mortally wounded, while to my right, Greg Marinovich clutched at his chest, holding on for dear life. Friends and fellow photographers who had dedicated their careers to documenting the violent, dying throes of apartheid lay dead and wounded.

From 1990 to 1994, close to 700 people died in Thokoza, and hundreds in that very street. It was one among many. Today, a memorial on Khumalo Street bears the names of the dead, Ken’s included.

When I visited the monument in late 2016, it was serving as shelter to homeless people, who slept next to the inscribed marble wall. It has since been rehabilitated by former members of the Self-Defense Units, residents — predominantly supporters of Mr. Mandela’s African National Congress — who defended their communities against Inkatha Freedom Party supporters.

Macdonald Mabizela, 48, who was then a teenage fighter and is now a caretaker, explained how they had chased away the vagrants, cleaned up the memorial and rebuilt part of the perimeter wall that had collapsed after someone drove into it.

Nelson Mandela addressed the nation that night, calling for calm and for an end to the bloodshed — a presidential act before becoming president. Shortly afterward, the Inkatha Freedom Party announced that it would be participating in the election. The ballots had been printed without a slot for the party. Decals were quickly added. It was stark evidence of how close South Africa had come to a civil war.

South Africans voted, and it was a peaceful day, that much I remember. I documented it, and what should have been a life-changing experience was lost on me. I had just buried a friend, and another was recovering from three gunshot wounds. I voted in Katlehong, a mere six-minute drive from where Ken was killed, shipped my film back to The Associated Press’s office and went to sit at Greg’s side. Two days of voting went by in a blur, with me barely present.

South Africans will vote again this week, in a national election less predictable than any since 1994. It is important to remember the past at times such as these and to honor those who paid the ultimate price as political figures negotiated their way to power and democracy.

Joao Silva is a Times photographer based in South Africa. More about Joao Silva

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Thirty years after the end of apartheid, equality eludes South Africa

Nelson Mandela's African National Congress promised South Africans "A Better Life For All" when it swept to power in the country's first democratic election in 1994, marking the end of white minority rule and apartheid.

After 30 years of ANC government, many South Africans are frustrated about persistent poverty and inequality, and the party risks losing its parliamentary majority for the first time in a May 29 election, according to opinion polls.

The World Bank reported in 2022 that South Africa was the most unequal country in the world, based on the Gini metric, a statistical distribution of welfare indicators commonly used to measure inequality.

The following data shows that while strides have been made in delivering education, housing and welfare benefits to a wider share of society, South Africa has yet to overcome the legacy of apartheid and deliver a better life for all.

UNEMPLOYMENT

South Africa's joblessness rate, among the highest in the world, is the number one concern for many voters, though the problem is far more acute for the Black majority than for the white minority. The rates for other ethnic groups fall in between.

Job seekers wait by a roadside for passing motorists to offer them work in Eikenhof, south of Johannesburg, South Africa, March 4, 2004. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

A series of government interventions have failed to narrow the gap, with the unemployment rate last year standing at 36.5% for Black people and 7.7% for white people.

Add a description of the graphic for screen readers. This is invisible on the page.

South Africa's GDP per capita increased steadily in the years following the advent of democracy but that trend has reversed since 2011. By 2023, it was below the average for emerging markets.

Economists say the decline in GDP per capita is rooted in a weakening economy rather than population growth. Power shortages and poor maintenance of critical transport infrastructure are among factors deterring investment and hampering business.

South Africa's GDP growth has averaged 0.8% per year since 2012, a rate the National Treasury has said is insufficient to reduce high levels of unemployment and poverty.

COMPANY OWNERSHIP

One measure of the unequal distribution of wealth and opportunity in South African society is the breakdown by population group of ownership of companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

Black people make up more than 80% of South Africa's population. However, average Black ownership in JSE-listed firms - a measure which includes other previously segregated racial groups - was 30% in 2022, with the remaining 70% owned by white people and foreign nationals.

No JSE-listed company was fully Black-owned in 2022.

LAND REFORM

The question of land ownership is highly politically charged in South Africa due to the legacy of the colonial and apartheid eras, when Black people were dispossessed of their lands and denied property rights.

Successive ANC governments have launched programmes aimed at transferring farmland from white to Black owners, for example by buying land and then redistributing it. The target, which has been moved back several times, is to transfer 30% of farmland owned by white farmers to Black farmers by 2030.

Workers harvest spinach at a farm in Klippoortje, outside Johannesburg, South Africa, April 25, 2022. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

Academics Wandile Sihlobo and Johann Kirsten, both experts on agriculture, have estimated that about 20% of freehold farmland owned by white farmers in 1994 has passed into Black hands, either through government programmes or private purchases.

White commercial farmers now own about 61 million hectares, representing 78% of farmland that comes with private title deeds and 50% of all land in South Africa, according to their estimates.

Opinions vary widely on whether this represents significant progress or not, and land reform remains a rallying cry for certain political parties, including the ANC and the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters, who want it to be accelerated.

SOCIAL WELFARE

The number of South Africans on state benefits for old age, disability or child support has increased significantly over the years, straining the country's budget with more than a quarter of social development funding earmarked for social grants.

Over 27 million people, or 44% of the population, received state benefits in 2022. This compares to 2.4 million people, or 6% of the population, in 1998.

Social grant recipients stand in a queue outside a post office in Meadowlands, a suburb of Soweto, South Africa, February 24, 2022. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

The ANC government introduced a new "social relief of distress" grant in 2021 to support those hardest hit by the COVID pandemic. It is currently debating whether to make it permanent.

Opponents of such subsidies say they act as a disincentive to people looking for work and divert resources from basic services like electricity, water and schools.

South Africa significantly boosted basic and higher education enrolment after the democratic government abolished the apartheid-era Bantu education system, which provided inferior schooling for Black children to hold them back.

School children cross a makeshift bridge after heavy rains in Thembisa in the East Rand, South Africa, November 11, 2020. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

However, IMF research in 2019 found that the poorest 75–80% of primary school learners depended on public schooling that was "dysfunctional", with limited resources and less well qualified teachers.

The paper said 80% of the schools it described as dysfunctional were in predominantly Black townships and in rural areas.

South Africa's publicly funded health sector, which serves over 80% of the population, is overburdened and run-down, while a privileged minority have access to better treatment through private insurance.

On May 15, two weeks before the election, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law a National Health Insurance (NHI) bill that aims to provide free healthcare to all South Africans.

A patient sits on a bed in a ward in Klerksdorp Tshepong public district hospital in Klerksdorp, North West province, South Africa, March 13, 2024. REUTERS/Alet Pretorius

Supporters say it will address healthcare inequality, but opponents say the NHI will be a drain on already stretched public finances, and will limit patient choice, harm the quality of care and drive talented doctors out of South Africa.

South Africa is one of the countries worst-hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, with nearly 8 million people living with the virus, of whom about 5.7 million are receiving antiretroviral drugs (ARVs). The total population is 62 million.

Life expectancy was severely affected by the disease, falling from over 62 years in 1994 to about 54 years a decade later, before recovering thanks to the mass rollout of the life-saving drugs from 2004 onwards.

The rollout was ordered by the Constitutional Court, ruling against the government of then president Thabo Mbeki, who had questioned the scientific consensus that AIDS is caused by the HIV virus and cast doubt over the safety of ARVs.

The drugs helped life expectancy recover. It remained on an upward trend until the COVID pandemic, when it dipped.

BASIC SERVICES

Since 1994, the ANC government has broadened the provision of basic services including housing, electricity, water and sanitation to a majority of South Africans.

Nearly 95% of households, for example, use electricity as the main source of energy for lighting, up from 58% of households in 1996.

A man pushes a drum filled with water fetched from a communal water source in Lillydale, South Africa, March 19, 2024. REUTERS/James Oatway

But the supply of power, water and other basic services has deteriorated over the years as under-investment in critical infrastructure has left it unable to cope with rising demand.

In recent years, frequent rolling power cuts of up to 10 hours a day have impacted everything from households to businesses and hospitals to traffic lights, becoming a byword for the ANC government's failings in delivering basic services.

*The starting data point on tertiary education for Brazil and India are 2011 instead of 2010

​​Statistics South Africa; International Monetary Fund; B-BBEE Commission Report,SA; Wandile Sihlobo and Johann Kirsten; South African Social Security Agency; National Treasury; Department of Higher education and Training; World Bank; geoboundaries.org

Photo editing by

James Oatway

Estelle Shirbon, Toby Chopra and Anand Katakam